


lie to me

by myouwos



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Eventual Smut, F/F, and lots of feelings because this is minayeon, mina is a veela, mostly fluff ? light angst but it shouldn't hurt too much, nayeon is a slytherin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:36:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myouwos/pseuds/myouwos
Summary: Im Nayeon quite literally falls for the new girl. But she's never been one to trust her own feelings, and does intend on finding out just why Myoui Mina is making her feel this way.OrA Minayeon Harry Potter AU in which Nayeon is a hard headed slytherin and Mina is the veela that fell for her.
Relationships: Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina
Comments: 66
Kudos: 248





	1. i. thin white lies

**Author's Note:**

> well. hi again. 
> 
> this wasn't planned, but i've been way too obsessed with the idea of slytherin nayeon and veela mina ever since she dyed her hair to blonde. 
> 
> thanks to pupvivi, bluemidana and other anons on tumblr who helped me come up with the plot! (<3) 
> 
> i don't know how long this will be, but i loved writing it! 
> 
> please share your thoughts on this with me, i would love to know what you thought ^^
> 
> enjoy!

it begins like any other love story. at least like the ones nayeon secretly watches in her room late at night, when her slytherin friends are all asleep, tired from a potion exam, covers thrown over her head as tears brighten in her eyes. 

she's not a romantic, and will never let anyone say otherwise, but enjoying a beautiful love story doesn't have anything to do with that, right ? all nayeon wants is to believe, no, to dream of what she will surely never get to experience. at least not any time soon with the idiots she's stuck with, all either too dense to hold an actual interesting conversation with her and keep her from getting bored in the middle of it, or simply not fitting her tastes.

(sana always rolls her eyes when nayeon complains about her celibacy only being due to her unrivaled charms and beauty. especially because deep down, she knows that her best friend is absolutely serious- she even wrote a theory as to why she was too perfect to ever consider getting with a common wizard or witch on a parchment, one that had been way too long for sana to read more than the first few words, words that had simply been nayeon counting down her endless qualities.)

it certainly is a bit cliché. and had she witnessed the situation instead of living it, she supposes that she would have walked away, rolling her eyes in that superior aura that surrounds her at all times. but nayeon is currently too busy looking up at the body that just collided into hers, bringing her down to the floor in the middle of a thankfully empty corridor in a mess of limbs and curses, to care about the ridiculous situation she finds herself in.

"oh god, i'm so sorry for bumping into you. i wasn't paying attention to where i was going because i'm new here and i don't know what direction is the headmistress' office but i really need to get there as soon as possible." from what she can see, the body resting on top of hers quickly leaves, replaced by a sudden feeling of emptiness nayeon does not dwell on much, the skin of her cheek where the girl's soft breathing had tickled her gently throbbing in an odd, unrecognizable feeling. "this map is definitely not as helpful as i was told and- oh gosh, sorry, let me get this for you." 

a flash of blonde hair appears in front of her eyes, and she blinks. and blinks again when she finds that she still has a hard time focusing on the obviously very nervous girl, one that is currently picking up the heavy thick books nayeon was carrying before someone leaped in front of her out of nowhere and brought her down to the cold hard floor, her knees starting to ache slightly from the fall. 

a hand grabs her arm, and she barely has time to think about how soft and gentle it is before the girl helps her up, steadying her by holding her hips when she threatens to fall back down, her knees suddenly weak and her mind dizzy, as if a sort of delicate veil had wrapped around it, keeping any logical thoughts from circulating through her usually pretty composed brain. the books are shoved in her hands, and she's able to remember that she's supposed to hold them, her grip on the old defense against the dark arts book tightening, one that she spent her entire evening studying. 

"are you alright, miss ?" 

nayeon blinks one last time, shaking her head in disbelief, and the slytherin is finally back to herself. "am i alright ? you just attempted murder on me ! of course i'm not." a dark chuckles echoes in the empty corridor, the space suddenly far too restricted for nayeon's liking, the girl standing so close to her that she can feel a delicious warmth radiating off her body. "you better no cross my way again, i might accidentally turn you into a rat if i ever see you again." 

the girl's eyes widen, and her lips part, as if trying to apologize again but being too shocked by her sudden change of behavior to remember how to form coherent sentences. nayeon chooses in that moment that she hates her, hates the pure innocence that shines in her eyes, hates the pout that graces her soft looking pink lips and the moles that make her look so utterly beautifully unique. but more than anything, nayeon hates herself for noticing such features, internally scolding herself when she feels her anger softening until it completely disappears, replaced by a sudden desire to feel just how soft those lips are by herself. 

"but... this was an accident. i never meant to hurt you, please accept my-"

"i'll accept your apology if i want to, newbie." nayeon's eyes trail down to her uniform, or lack of thereof, and she raises a curious eyebrow, wondering why she wasn't aware of a new arrival to their school. 

and before she can find another threat to scare her with, the girl takes a deep breath, sparking brown eyes seemingly taking in every little detail of her face, right before she turns back on her heels, running away almost as quickly as she arrived crashing into the slytherin's life, the click of her short heels resonating in the small corridor, in sink with nayeon's fast heartbeat. 

the oddly familiar warmth leaves with the girl and nayeon almost finds herself missing it. almost. instead, she turns back on her heels, her hold on the books tightening when her mind is still invaded by a sweet perfume and the prettiest brown eyes she has ever seen. 

nayeon will blame the way her heartbeat fastens to the adrenaline of her fall, and will ignore the way her cheeks were coated in a light pink when she will look at her reflection in a mirror later on. because whoever that girl is, she has to make sure she knows her place. and no one gets away with hurting im nayeon, not even a beautiful blonde haired girl who's worried eyes made her feel like someone actually cared about her, for the first time in ages.

  
\-----

  
hard pants replace the usual silence of the restroom, especially at such an early hour of the morning. and slowly, a body lowers down to the floor, not caring about it being potentially dirty as she is too busy thinking back to the short minutes she spent in this girl's presence.

never in her eighteen years of life had she felt something like this before. her heart beats faster than it every has, and she could feel it begin to hurt with each step she took, steps that brought her away from the dark haired girl she had accidentally hurt. her eyes fall shut, fingers rubbing at her temples hard. in vain, she tries to get her veela back under her control, something she's trained to do for years, something that she is proud to say that she has mastered better than anyone- or had mastered. 

the fact that one single girl was able to make her feelings and control crumble down so suddenly worries her far more than she would ever admit, and in a show of fear, she almost calls her mother to ask her to come back home, to finish her education back in japan instead of having to spend her last year here, in hogwarts.

none of this was supposed to happen. 

mina is not ready for this, not ready to have found the woman that her grandmother told her she would spend her life with, not ready for what she believed to be fantasies created to make her teenage self dream of perfect love, something that she never believed to truly exist. 

(but right now, as the mysterious girl's face appears behind her eyelids as she keeps her eyes shut, her veela almost begging her to search for her again, she's not sure those strictly were meaningless stories.)

and the worst thing about all of this, is that the girl she is probably going to have trouble breathing correctly around, surely hates her. at least that's what mina got from the dark gaze that took over the warm brown of her eyes. she scoffs when she realizes that the girl blamed her for something she had little to no control over, especially since she was not the only one not looking at where she was heading. but any negative feelings she has for her mysteriously disappear as soon as she remembers the soft pink of her cheeks and her heart shaped cherry colored lips.

a few deep intakes of breath later, and mina is finally able to calm herself, head rolling back to hit the wall that supports her from falling backwards in a soft thump. the room is dark save for the light that comes from under the heavy mahogany door, but when she stands up to take a look at her appearance in the mirror, it feels like her eyes are glowing, her blonde hair cascading down her shoulders and visible even with the lack of lightening.

light laughter echoes from behind the door, and her eyes leave her reflection to settle on the dial of her watch. 

three boys stare in surprise at the figure that bursts out of the restroom quite suddenly, all immediately stopping to look at her. a simple flash of her face is enough to have their heartbeats quickening, one of them going to follow after her as she passes them on her way to the headmistress' office but is kept back by his friends. 

when mina arrives to her destination, she doesn't know that those three boys might not be the bestest of friends anymore, one of them sporting a reddening eye as the other two fall down to the floor in a mess of limbs, drawing the attention of every students walking through the school's halls as they fight.

  
\-----

  
"i'm so sorry for being late." a panting mina says when headmistress park opens the door to her office with a light scowl. "i- i ran into someone on the way here."

the headmistress chuckles at that, moving away from the doorway to let mina enter the room as she herself walks to the seat behind her desk. the veela closes the door behind herself, noticing the black and white cat that slips through the door as she does so, a light gasp escaping her mouth. curiously, she takes in the office, stopping over a few details, like the dozen of plants that occupy an entire wall, or a frame in which figures a younger picture of the headmistress and a little girl.

"miss myoui, are you with me ?" her voice is enough for mina to get back to what she came here for in the first place, and she shakes her head, as if to scold herself for her undying curiosity. 

"yes, ms. park. sorry about that." a shy smile graces her lips, one that is so undeniably mina. 

"it's alright. let's start, shall we ?"

they both go over the subjects that mina will take- she chose as many as possible, thinking that this way she would be kept busy for most of what was left of the year even if she had trouble making any friends. the headmistress offers some green tea to her in the middle of their meeting, certainly because she knows that mina came all the way from japan, and the new student gladly accepts it, her lips burning lightly from the warmth coming from the beverage. and when they're done talking about her schedule for the rest of the year, one that began a month ago, she makes sure to give mina a room, one right next to the head girl's. 

"it has been empty for a long time, we have not had the chance of receiving any transferred students for awhile here at hogwarts. especially not someone as unique as you, miss myoui." her tone sounds sincere, and a light blush spreads on mina's cheeks at the mention of her nature. she's not used to non-veelas knowing about it, mostly because she went to a magical creatures school back in japan and kept to her own family for most of her life. 

her stay here will definitely disrupt many aspects of her habits, and she supposes that it is a nice challenge to face before she is let go into the world to survive on her own. 

"i'm far from being unique. there are a lot of us where i come from, you know." 

"of course. i would love to learn more about you during your stay here. would you mind sharing some stories about your species around a cup of tea once in awhile ? i've heard you are exceptionally bright for your age." the headmistress praises her, causing her blush to deepen. "and very modest, from what i can see."

"i would love to." a gummy smile illuminates her face, and she's glad to notice that she has finally stopped thinking about the girl, now focused on her conversation with the woman. 

"good. oh, and it seems i forgot to mention a crucial detail about your stay here. our head girl will be taking care of showing you around school grounds for the first few weeks, and you will be placed next to her during most of your classes. i was pleasingly surprised to find out that you have both chosen very similar courses, which did make my job a bit easier." the headmistress finishes her tea, placing the empty cup on a paper note on her desk, and stands up, her robes sweeping the desk with the action. 

mina understands that her time here is over and follows after her. 

"i'm sure you too will get along. her name is im nayeon. she's one of the school's top students. and don't share this with her, but the only flaw i have found in her is that she's not a gryffindor." the headmistress confesses, laughing when she realizes that mina's knowledge on houses is certainly little to no existant. 

"i'm excited to meet her then, ms. park." mina walks out of the office with the headmistress, who in passing grabs her cat and ushers it out gently, her other hand resting on mina's back as she leads her to the dinning hall. 

"you can call me jihyo when it's just the two of us, dear."

  
\-----

nayeon chooses not to dwell too much on the reason why she chooses to keep her earlier interaction with the blonde haired girl to herself instead of telling her best friend about it. there's something that makes her feel like telling sana about it would end up with her having to face feelings that she buried deep down in her heart, her initial reaction to the girl still confusing her.

"did you hear about the new girl ?" sana asks, nayeon accidentally letting go of her spoon, staring at her best friend in surprise. is she the only one who didn't know a new student was coming here ? as a head girl, she usually is the first one to be warned about such things. and if there's one thing that nayeon hates more than she supposedly despises that girl, it's being kept out of the loop.

"what about her ?" the slytherin feigns ignorance when sana stares at the fallen spoon curiously, wondering what triggered this to happen. 

"not much. other than the fact that she made head turns on her way. jeongyeon says that she's never seen someone that pretty before." sana has a dreamy look on her face, clearly imagining what that girl must look like to have such an effect on the school's second most sought after student- nayeon is first, and will make sure that it stays that way even after she leaves. "well, excluding you, of course."

the brunette is quick to correct herself when the mistake that she just made seems to appear to her in blinding panick. nayeon rolls her eyes, wondering why her friends won't just understand that she and jeongyeon are still just as close as they used to be even after all that happened. sure, knowing that her ex girlfriend has set her sight on the new girl makes a weird sensation of annoyance appear in her already preoccupied mind. but the thing is that she's not exactly sure jeongyeon is the actual cause of it.

"how is it that everyone has seen her but me ?" nayeon lies, her attention going back to the strawberry yogurt- she's never been one to eat much at breakfast. "and jeongyeon thinks that everyone with breasts is hot. she's not very trustworthy here." 

sana rolls her eyes, glad that their friends aren't here yet to hear nayeon's remarks. she's witnessed enough ruined breakfasts as it is, all because the two can not seem to keep their mouth shut around one another. the slytherin is about to say something else when something, or rather someone, distracts her, wide eyes staring behind nayeon. the older woman does not even have time to ask her about what she saw before a gentle and warm hand settles on her shoulder, one that she immediately recognizes as jihyo's.

"nayeon, there's someone i want you to meet." 

as the slytherin turns around, she notices that the entire dinning hall has grown silent, every pair of eyes directed at her part of the table. and it doesn't take long for her to find out just why that is, the girl from earlier standing right next to her. 

the moment they recognize each other is one that neither of them will forget. mina stares at her in what must be close to horror, although she's not entirely sure that it's the bad kind. whereas nayeon swallows hard, although the lump in her throat does not leave, and is instead accompanied by the sudden desire to take a picture of the girl, because she knows that the moment she will walk away, she will miss her. 

time freezes for the both of them. that is, until nayeon realizes that jihyo has been talking all this time, only stopping when she realizes that neither of the two heard a word of what she said. the headmistress coughs twice in her hand, finally succeeding in getting their attention, and mina's eyes immediately lower down to the floor as if staring at nayeon would get her hurt.

(well, in a way, that's what she promised to her earlier, threatening to use a basic but effective spell on her if they ever met again. how was she supposed to know that it would end up happening so quickly ? and especially, how was she supposed to know that the girl she had threatened would be one she would be stuck with for weeks, if not months ?)

"have you too met already ?" jihyo asks, not entirely innocently judging from her narrowed eyes.

"briefly."

"no." 

nayeon glares at the girl, wondering why on earth she didn't let her answer the question herself. she can feel sana's eyes boring into her back and knows that she will be forced to face her best friend's questions later on, sana always finding a way to know what nayeon wishes she could hide.

"i see." jihyo chuckles. as if suddenly aware of her surroundings, everyone staring at the trio with either curious eyes or enamoured ones when mina looks up from the ground to stare at the crowd. "well, it doesn't matter anyway. nayeon, this is mina. mina, here's the nayeon i told you about on the way here."

"pleased to meet you !" sana nearly moves nayeon out of the way to greet mina, the girl letting go of the nearly empty yogurt cup once again. her cheerful voice echoes in the hall, and mina's nervous expression shifts into an amused one, a light smile gracing her lips . it's odd, but the feeling of uneasiness that spread through her mind comes back in a rush, and she shoves sana away, the girl sitting back in her chair with a shocked gasp.

"hello, nayeon." 

it's the first time nayeon can properly hear mina's voice, not inhabited by a blinding rage anymore, or by confusing thoughts that certainly played a role in her snapping at this mina girl earlier on. 

it fills her ear beautifully, like the songs that blast through her ears in the middle of spring as she walks around the towers, far too high for anyone to bother the peacefulness that wraps around her usually nervous mind. there's something oddly cliché about her meeting with this girl, and nayeon is pretty sure that she's never felt compelled to linking someone's voice to the few good memories she's been able to make during her stay here.

it's oddly cliché and oddly scary, this pull she feels towards her. a girl that is the opposite of a slytherin, who does not seem driven by the desire to succeed, but instead who seems focused on simple tasks, such as making friends and keeping her smile strong even in such a dark world. nayeon hates it. hates that she can't seem to make herself hate her.

"hi. welcome to hogwarts." 

  
\-----

  
as nayeon takes a seat behind the desk that has been marked as hers ever since her first year at hogwarts- it's been that way ever since the clothes of a boy who had dared to sit there had been found soaking in the lake, although nayeon never admitted to having done that- she thinks back to the heavy task jihyo gave to her. 

"would you show mina here around the school ? she's arriving a bit later than planned and unfortunately, i will not be able to find time to do so. but i'm sure that as the best head girl hogwarts has had the chance of having for long years, you would love to take care of mina's installation, right ?"

"you always say that i'm the best head girl you've seen but you've only been headmistress for 10 years. i'm not sure it's such a great compliment." nayeon had rolled her eyes, until they settled back on mina and her perfectly sparkling eyes and gummy smile and why was she thinking about this again ? "i will make sure... mina has a great stay at our renowned school. you can count on me, ms. park."

the sound of a chair gritting against the floor takes her back to the present and instead of finding sana in the seat she had also pretty much claimed as hers by her side, she finds the blonde haired girl whose name she now knows to be mina. 

"about what happened this morning-" mina begins when she sees that nayeon has not once stopped staring at her ever since she sat down, the professor not having yet arrived as the entire room is filled in light chatter- in which she hears her name being mentionned once or twice, wondering how they were able to find out what it is so quickly. 

"don't." the slytherin cuts her off, sighing exaggeratedly as if to make sure that mina would not be able to miss it. "let's just put this behind us, shall we ?" it sounds like an order more than a question, and mina is relieved to know that she might not be turned into a rodent as she had feared. 

"of course." mina brushes away the strand of blonde hair that had fallen in front of her eyes and the sound of a chair falling down to the floor makes the two girls gasp in shock, both turning around to stare at a gryffindor boy, staring at them with blushing cheeks and more particularly at mina. the veela internally scolds herself for this, it will be hard to keep her nature a secret for much longer if this keeps happening everywhere she goes. 

(when she sat down at nayeon's table this morning after the headmistress had left, two girls accidentally let go of their glasses while they were staring at her, and one boy fumbled with a poor flower he had conjured, wondering if he should be brave and give it to her. thankfully, he had stayed away. 

mina thinks the intimidating glare that nayeon threw at him when she unconsciously moved closer to the slytherin on the bench might be behind his sudden change of thoughts.)

"ignore him. he's a dumb gryffindor. they have no shame." nayeon says, turning back to stare at the black board. it feels like she's avoiding mina, looking at anything in the room but the girl, and she wonders if nayeon too is affected by her veela nature. ever since she ran into her, controlling that aspect of her life has been harder to do than usual. she blames it on her veela desperately trying to grab the girl's attention, and fears that her thrall might end up doing just that.

"i see the rumors are true then."

nayeon wonders how someone could have such an alluring voice and yet be so soft spoken. "what rumors ?"

"the rivalry between slytherins and gryffindors." mina remembers reading about the different houses that make up hogwarts before coming here, and she has not yet forgotten the warning it gave off about those that are slytherin. but she's never been one to judge, and would rather find out about this by herself.

"well, in a way i suppose that it is. but i just personally hate this guy. he stole my puppy from me in fifth year because i stole his girlfriend." nayeon rolls her eyes, crossing her arms as she leans back in her seat. "it's not my fault that i am both prettier and smarter than he could ever dream of being, right ?"

the veela is not sure if this is a question she's supposed to answer or not. but before the 'no' that had been on the tip of her tongue can slip past her lips, the professor steps into the room, silence replacing the earlier slightly messy ambiance. 

mina has to say that surprisingly enough, the lesson goes well. she's followed very similar courses back in japan which certainly explains why she's able to understand everything the professor mentions, even when he does not necessarily explain what they saw during the lessons she missed. and against her earlier judgment, nayeon seems to be very serious about her studies, her nose barely leaving her notes as her hand works fast in writing down each and every word that leaves the professor's lips.

later on, the veela will blame herself for getting distracted by the slytherin close to the end of the lesson. there's just something about nayeon, something she thinks she's known ever since she ran into her, that makes it hard for her to look away. the dark haired girl looks up from her note to see that mina is staring at her rather intensely, but instead of commenting on it like she usually would, she simply holds her stare for long seconds, the professor's talk about the first war dying down until neither of them can hear it anymore. 

nayeon is the first one to look away. 

but mina never does, and she spends the rest of the hour secretly drawing the slytherin's side profile instead of noting down what will surely be useful for her exams. 

  
\-----

  
"follow me." nayeon whispers in her ear when class ends, taking her books in her arms and following the mass of students who rush out of the room, in a hurry to get away from who she guesses to be the most boring professor of the entire school. 

when she looks up from the books she diligently placed in her bag, nayeon is already far away, and she only recognizes her by the shine of her dark hair and the regal step as she walks down the corridor, students parting to let her pass. throwing her bag over her shoulder, she's quick to leave the room, only to come to a stop when she collides into another body, this time not as hard as previously.

"hey !" a girl with middle length brown hair stops her before she can catch nayeon, and she recognizes her as the one that had been sitting next to the head girl during lunch. "mina, right ? i've heard a lot about you."

it's not a very smart way to start a conversation, especially since she obviously knows her name. but the veela brushes it off, eyes still trailed on the slytherin who's just about to disappear from her view. 

"all good i hope." mina knows that she has to find a way to escape what will surely be an awkward discussion, but she can't bring herself to be mean to someone.

"depends." the girl's smile is certainly not an honest one, and this mina is aware of. she likes to see the best in people, but she's not sure that's the case for the slytherin. "i just find it weird that everyone around here would fall for you so easily. whatever it is that you're doing to make that happen, you better not do it to nayeon."

the veela stares at her, visibly speechless, for long seconds. time feels like it passes slower than usual as the two get in a staring contest, trying to see who will be the first one to back down. mina should have known that this would happen sooner or later, although she had wished it would be the second option. she's learned to control her veela attributes, but she will never be able to change who she is, and certainly not how others react to her nature.

of course people would start to notice, and it so happened that who she supposes to be nayeon's best friend has been the first one. 

"she's in the library in case you need to find her. i'll let you find where that is on your own." the girl turns back on her heels when the click of heels resonates between the walls of the small corridor, someone coming their way. "i'm sana by the way, cutie." 

mina takes a deep breath when sana is finally away from her view. keeping her identity secret for much longer will be difficult, but she has to try. she's not sure everyone here would be thrilled with having such a creature walking around their school.

and she might be closer to the truth than she thinks.

  
\-----

  
"where have you been ?" nayeon asks when mina sits down in the place in front of hers, her voice a toned down whisper even though they're the only ones in the library at the moment. she never looks up from her notes, ones full of colorful drawings of potions, and mina finds herself missing her signature intense eyes, ones that might be as dark as the green of her house, but through which mina always senses a certain warmth. as if it's been laying dormant inside of her, kept locked away on purpose. 

"i- i got lost on the way here." she chooses to hide the truth from nayeon, a part of her hoping that sana will keep her suspicions to herself and not share them with her best friend just yet. 

nayeon seems like her only chance to find a friend here. her only chance to feel accepted in this new world she's just stepped into as a stranger. wasting that one single chance would be the worst thing that could happen to mina right now. and neither her nature or the feelings she's desperately trying to suppress for the girl should stop her from doing so.

the slytherin chuckles at mina's fake confession, the traces of a smile forming on her lips. the same lips that mina only stops looking at when she realizes that it leads her to dangerous territories, ones in which she dreams of being more than nayeon's friend.

"i will show you around the school tomorrow and for the rest of the week, if that's alright with you ?" nayeon's voice has never been so soft, especially not when speaking to mina, and she clears her throat, as if trying to get rid of the sudden softness that invaded her when she imagined a pouting mina walking through the halls, desperately trying to find her. "there's this exam i have to study for and i know jihyo asked for me to tend to my head girl duties with you but... i do need to keep my grades as perfect as they have been ever since the year started."

"of course. i understand that i'm far from being your priority." mina notes in a corner of her head that nayeon called the headmistress by her name and wonders if that's a common thing to do around here. 

"that's not-" nayeon stops herself before she can actually go through with what she was going to say. denying mina's words so strongly would certainly be suspicious, and she doesn't know what drove her to such a reaction. "of course you're not."

the last few words are whispered, as if said with a sort of shame. nayeon bites her lip, wondering why she can't fully be herself with this new girl around. but what nayeon is surely not admitting, is that she's never been herself more than she is now.

the gummy smile that had been flattering her lips slowly disappears to be replaced by sad eyes and an emotionless smile and with it, nayeon feels a small part of her heart break. brushing it off, she puts the blame on her worrying for her potions exam, and promptly ignores mina for the rest of the time they spend in the library. 

(by ignoring, nayeon means that she tries to study, but each of the notes she took down feel like blurry sentences devoid of sense. when mina stands up to walk around the alleys of books, a small jump in each of her step as she stops on the section with the magical creatures books, a light smile replaces her earlier scowling. there would be no sense in trying to blame this on anything but the fast beat of her heart every time the other girl does such an innocent and yet adorable action. instead, nayeon chooses to ignore again, pushing back all of those thoughts until they rest in the back of her heart, far enough for nayeon to continue to pretend that they're not here. the real question she should be asking herself is for how long they will stay that way.

certainly not long enough.)

  
\-----

"here's your room. mine is just around the corner. just knock in case you need something, i won't be asleep for awhile." 

nayeon had not been able to do much studying earlier and she intends on catching up right now, which is why she makes sure to let mina know about it. the new student might need some more informations, and although curfew is important and she will have to make sure everyone is sleeping in an hour, she could exempt mina of that rule for her first day here.

"thank you. what time should i see you tomorrow ?" mina asks, a light pink blush spreading on her cheeks when she considers the possibility of nayeon not wanting to spend anymore time with her. thankfully, the head girl does not seem as repulsed as she had imagined by the idea and instead seems to be considering her own schedule and the time she wakes up at.

"be in front of my door at 8 am sharp. i got that you have the habit of being late, but this won't go well with me." nayeon's stare is half glaring and half making fun of their first interaction, once again confusing the veela about her feelings. "and i won't accept any excuses this time. are we clear ?"

"crystal clear." mina nods eagerly, not wanting to upset nayeon by making her feel like she isn't taking this seriously.

"good."

and with that, she walks away, her back turned to mina, and the veela stays in front of her door, staring at the place she's last seen nayeon occupying dreamily for long minutes.

  
\-----

  
it's late, and nayeon has been trying to fall asleep for hours now, books forgotten on top of her bedside table. she had tried, again and again, to think about anything but the blonde haired girl that quite literally came crashing into her life. in vain. 

a pillow is thrown over her head and she groans into the sheets, mind filled with images of mina's soft pout, of her fiddling with her fingers nervously every time nayeon so much as looked at her, of her heart warming smile and the way her eyes close to form crescents when it widens. 

nayeon lies to herself that night. 

she promises to never fall for someone like mina, for someone that makes her lose all of the control she worked hard to put around her emotions for years. the slytherin only falls asleep once she succeeds in convincing herself of those lies, mind at peace although her heart has never been fuller. 

but mina is not a liar. and that's what will break her, in the end. 


	2. ii. levitating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!
> 
> i updated quicker than expected because tbh this story is really self indulgent :o 
> 
> thank you for your feedback and kudos, your support means a lot and certainly played a part in me being quick to update! it means a lot :)
> 
> enjoy ! and share your thoughts on the chapter with me ^^ !

lying seemingly worked pretty well for nayeon, as the first week since mina mysteriously stepped foot into hogwarts comes to an end, and with it the confusing torrent of feelings that had taken over her heart.

it doesn't take long for them to get into an easy-to-follow routine. mina finds herself waiting in front of the head girl's door every morning, not having been late once- unless we count the time nayeon had found mina wearing a dark green shirt under her uniform vest and had made her go back to her room to change because "this is my color. i don't want us to be matching like a ridiculous romcom couple." which mina had obviously done. 

sure, the first few days- meaning all of them, a week is surprisingly not that long- the slytherin finds herself taking in the sight that is mina in the morning, already in such a happy mood when nayeon struggles with putting sentences together before she's eaten breakthrough. but nayeon has decided that in order to lie to herself, she needed to accept a few aspects of her new shared life with mina.

like the fact that no matter what she wears, no matter what time of the day it is or if they've just spent an hour flying, mina looks undeniably good. (she's not yet ready to accept the fact that 'good' is an understatement. looking good is what she sees in her mirror each morning, certainly not what mina finds in hers. but this is nothing but a meaningless detail that nayeon has decided will not lead her to anything productive in her quest to forget about what this mina girl actually does to her.)

the slytherin has also accepted that mina is not just pretty to her, but to literally every soul that crosses her way.

(oddly enough, this was the hardest thing to get past. it should have made her feel better, should have convinced her that what she's feeling is completely normal and that she shouldn't read too much into it. but instead, a sort of rage forms deep inside of her every time she catches a pair of eyes trailing down mina's body like she's a piece of meat, and she's lost count of the amount of times she's wrapped a possessive- no, a protective arm around her friend- possessiveness would imply exactly what she's been trying to deny.)

overall, nayeon would say that things are going well. she does snap at mina once in awhile, to make her remember her place when she gets a bit too bold. but the girl seems almost immune to her rude remarks now, instead choosing to ignore them- at least that's what nayeon thinks. mina might just be a lot more fragile than the slytherin believes. 

although nayeon does note down in a corner of her mind that her best friend does not seem to appreciate mina's presence as much as she did the first time they met. sana refused to trade her seat with the girl during lunch, forcing her to sit in front of the two instead of next to nayeon like it had originally been planned. she did notice the half hidden glares that her best friend threw at mina when silence took over the table, but supposed that sana would tell her herself if something was wrong.

but the slytherin never did. not once did she mention mina to nayeon, not even to talk about the obvious lies she had told about their first meeting. so nayeon had forgotten about it, deeming it as unnecessary to dwell on for much longer.

something about mina still makes nayeon feel out of control, like she doesn't have a hand on what she's allowed to feel anymore, but she does end up getting past that.

(she doesn't. nayeon simply gets lost in her own lies so deep that the line that separates reality and fantasy begins to blur. and dangerously so.)

"nayeon ?" the soft spoken voice she's learned to resist reaches her ears and nayeon looks away from falling snow to see that mina is staring at her with curious eyes. this might not be the first time that she sees nayeon zoning out, and yet every time it happens, mina seems to try and understand what went on inside of her tormented mind during those few seconds of absence.

if only she knew that nayeon had been thinking of her all this time.

"should we get going ? s-sana is waiting for you in the common room." 

and just like magic, nayeon's inner thoughts calm down, with one single look in mina's wide eyes. sometimes they feel like mirrors, and nayeon thinks she can see her soul, bare for anyone to see, right there in those brown orbs. but oddly enough for her soul, it's missing all of the hurtful parts, all of the dark memories that have tainted her happiness until it disappeared under a black sea. perhaps was she right when she confessed to mina one evening that she brings the best out in people. 

(mina had scoffed, pain flashing through her eyes, and nayeon wonders what it was about her words that hurt her.)

mina always stutters when sana is mentioned, but choosing not to dwell on it too much, nayeon simply grabs her bag and walks away from the window, shooting one last look at the white trees.

  
\-----

being close to nayeon at all time has both positive and negative effects on the veela.

the first one is that no matter how hard she tries to protect her own heart from the slytherin, aware of just how hard she makes it for anyone to love her, mina only falls harder. all it took for her to know that staying away from her would be impossible is a look in a book about love through magical times and for each and every magical creature capable of it. her fears got confirmed, and she realized that one way or another, she would have to tell nayeon about her true nature.

soulmates. it's something she remembers dreaming of when she was younger and still believed in finding the purest form of love that could exist. something that later shifted from her dreams to her nightmares. something that she fears might end up happening, after all.

her mother never found the one, the one whose soul matched hers. or rather she did, but he was too stubborn and led by his hatred for anyone that didn't fit his views of the world. still today, she catches her mother crying late at night about a lost opportunity, about someone who could have been hers, who should have been hers.

and everything leads her to believe that she'll experience a very similar life. the veela isn't sure that she could live without getting to experience the calmness that surrounds her whenever nayeon laughs, her bunny like teeth peeking out even with the lightest smile. it has been said that some veelas let themselves die, not able to bear the loss of their loved one. it's been close to a week since she has first met nayeon, and yet she could already imagine herself going through the same hardships as those veelas. 

the chances of nayeon ever falling for her are slim, and mina hates the effects her thrall has on others far too much to try and get her to love her in such a way. stubborn would be an understatement when describing nayeon, and she has made it clear through whispered confessions that she hates the simple idea of love. 

(mina does not yet know that im nayeon is an exceptionally good liar.)

but mina can not pretend that being next to nayeon does not make her pulse quicken, beating far too fast in her temple. nor can she stay away from her in what will probably be a failed attempt at putting all of her feelings aside until they disappear into thing air like the residue of magic after a successful spell.

all that she wants to find in nayeon is a friend for the time being, and if it's the only way she can be with her, then that's how it will be.

  
\-----

  
"let's end our tour of hogwarts in my favorite part of the castle." nayeon murmurs in her ear, a habit she has taken, one that makes the hair of arms stand up as chills course through her body until her hands start trembling lightly. there's something about nayeon always being so close to her, something about her not being conscious of the fact that she always has a hand on mina, whether it's on her arm or around her waist, that makes this so much harder on mina. thankfully the slytherin has not yet noticed the blush that spreads from her cheeks down to her neck when their hands come in contact. and if she has noticed, she doesn't tell mina.

she follows after the dark haired girl quickly, watching as she walks out of the library, pushing a sixth year ravenclaw who unfortunately for him was on her way. mina bows in a silent apology when she passes him and his shocked expression shifts into one of admiration, a hand resting on his beating heart. 

"another one ?" nayeon asks when mina catches up, the slytherin not even having to look up to know that it's her due to the signature shining blonde of her hair. 

"what do you mean ? another one what ?" the veela's eternal wide eyes stare at her curiously and she reminds herself not to glance at her, the honesty and innocence that she finds there still too hard for her to handle.

"another one that falls for you." the words are said in a ushered whisper, and before mina can reply, nayeon makes a turn and walks up a staircase that does not inspire mina anything good, the wood creaking under her feet even though nayeon has always been known for her light step- rumors about her being able to turn into a ghost spread around the school when she caught each and every student who were violating curfew without them hearing her coming their way. 

"hey, wait for me !" mina looks up at nayeon, and follows after her when her robes disappear from her view. jumping two steps at a time, the veela ignores the fragile looking stairs to reach the top as quickly as her legs allow her to. nayeon never waits for her. she always has a step ahead, and mina has lost count of the times she's found herself running after her, scared to be left behind. 

and something tells her that this aspect of their friendship, or whatever they have now is called, mirrors their future far too well. 

it's scary, and yet mina can't seem to get tired of running. 

what she sees when she reaches the top is a sight that will be engraved into her heart for what she already knows to be forever. nayeon is balancing her feet on the edge of the small wall that is supposed to keep anyone from falling. a red sign warns anyone that would want to stay here of the consequences of their actions, but from the peaceful look that graces her features, the slytherin does not seem to care.

and this way she constantly takes risk, acting before thinking at all times, is oh so nayeon that mina is not even surprised by the sight anymore. no, what makes this scene be so out of the ordinary, is how calm nayeon suddenly is. piercing eyes stare into the distance, unfazed, and the veela watches as nayeon takes a deep refreshing gulp of air. 

"well ? what are you waiting for there ?" nayeon's voice brings her out of her daydream and her legs begin moving without her thinking twice about it until she's standing behind nayeon, the spell that had wrapped around them now gone. "no one will punish you for being here. unless the head girl finds you and denounces your criminal self. she probably should have done it the first time you pushed a student down to the ground on your first day here."

mina can't see much more than nayeon's back from where she is, and yet she can see the slytherin's signature smirk as if it was right in front of her when her eyes slip shut. 

"i thought we weren't talking about that anymore." 

nayeon chuckles, once again forgetting to keep the self control she used to be so good at keeping in check. the traces of a smile linger on her cherry colored lips for short seconds until she swallows hard, forcing it to disappear.

"that doesn't mean i've forgotten about it. i was not kidding when i told you that no one hurts im nayeon and gets away with it." 

and before mina's enamoured mind can catch up with what the other girl is doing, she feels the tight hold of nayeon's hand wrapping her wrist and tugging her forward until she can see the ancient roof of the castle, a light scream slipping past her lips when images of herself falling down flash through her mind. her eyes fall shut when her feet leave the ground as she waits for an impact that never comes. 

after infinite seconds pass, the veela finally opens her eyes to realize that she is still on the ground, her head simply having passed over the small wall nayeon is still seated onto as the slytherin's wand is directed at her. the feeling of magic wrapping around her is one that she only realizes is there when she finds herself levitating, no more than a few centimeters off the cold hard ground.

"scared aren't we ?" nayeon's laughs resonates through her ears right before she lets go of her, bringing her back down to the floor away from the void when she sees the fear in mina's eyes.

the veela lowers down to the floor when the slytherin's magic finally subsides, her legs trembling as much as her hands. she sits there, panting hard from the sudden rush of emotions.

"don't be such a child, mina." nayeon towers over her, looking down at the veela with a light smirk and amused eyes. "i wasn't going to let you fall." 

it takes long seconds for her to feel safe enough to breathe normally, and when she finally opens her eyes again unshed tears shine in the brown orbs. a hand enters her vision, one that leads to a smug slytherin, and mina supposes she should have taken that warning everyone gave her about this particular house a bit more serious. the urge to cry is strong, but something tells her that nayeon won't be waiting to help her up for much longer, impatience clear when she rolls her eyes.

"w-why did you... why did you do this ?" her voice is so light that nayeon has trouble hearing it through the soft pants that still slip past her pink lips. 

a dark chuckle, one that she has oddly enough grown accustomed to with the amount of times she hears it everyday, is the only answer she gets. instead of replying, nayeon turns back around to face the view, arms propped on the wall, the same one she just threw mina over.

"you chose to get close to me, mina. no one forced you to." it sounds like nayeon is blaming her for far more than her presence here, but before she can dwell on it too much, the slytherin is back to staring at her with an unreadable expression. well, unreadable for most, but mina is not blind. she can sense the hurt in them, the rage that never quite seems to leave the slytherin's mind at peace. 

"and not once did i hear you complain about my choice." getting bold- well, bolder than she usually is- mina decides to join nayeon, although her mind screams at her to stay as far away from the edge as possible. nayeon swallows hard, her eyes following the blurry forms of two third years playing around in the snow until they disappear behind thick trees. "if you don't want me here, i can-"

"no." 

"no ?"

"stay."

"and what tells me you won't scare me again ?"

nayeon rolls her eyes, sighing loud enough for it to reach mina's sensitive ears. "i promise not to make you levitate again, mina. and a slytherin never breaks a promise. is that enough for you ? because you won't get much more than that from me."

mina pretends to think about it for awhile, heart racing as she considers her promise although her choice is already made. "i'll stay."

"good." nayeon nods, seemingly proud of her own talents in convincing others, and mina doesn't dare tell her that promise or not, she would have stayed anyway. she'll stay now and in each and every hardships she'll be put through because of her, because what else could she do ? running away would put an end to their growing friendship, and that's the last thing she wants to happen. 

that's the last word she hears from the slytherin for the entire day. the last word she hears before sleep takes over as she lays wide awake under the soft bedsheets, replaying each moment she spent with nayeon since she arrived here.

\-----

"oh, i wish i had been here to see her face." sana's laugh echoes between the walls of the common room, and nayeon forces a smile on her own lips. "she must have looked so scared, thinking you were going to throw her over the edge just like that."

it's odd, that in all of the years they've spent by each other's side, sana is not yet able to decipher a fake smile from a real one. but it has saved nayeon from having to face her friend's questions as much as her own feelings. there's some good in being so good at pretend, and this definitely falls into it.

later, when she'll be ready to replay the moment in her head without feeling too guilty about it, without flashes of mina's teary eyed stare appearing in her mind, nayeon will think back to what happened and realize why it did. perhaps was it the vulnerability that invaded her mind when she realized that she had brought mina to her safe place, to the only part of this castle she feels safe being herself, a vulnerability she despises. perhaps was it the sudden urge to pin mina against the stone cold wall of the tower, far from the edge, and bring her into a kiss that would have left the two of them breathless and yet begging for more as soon as her eyes fell onto her.

as quickly as they had opened, the walls she had worked hard on bringing up closed around her heart. again. and all she could do in that moment was take revenge. not revenge over their first meeting, no, this she couldn't care less about, the ache in her knees and wrists long gone. 

revenge for making her act so out of control. revenge for making her feel. 

maintaining a fake smile has never been so hard, especially when she notices everyone around them listening to their conversation. shame spreads through her even more strongly, and the idea of running to the dead tree next to the lake where mina spends so much of her time passes through her mind, brushed away by sana suddenly laughing even harder. 

"i knew you wouldn't fall for her like all of those idiots did." her best friend stares at her own reflection in a small mirror next to where nayeon is standing, adjusting her dark green tie when she notices that it's not as perfect as it she wants it to be. "i have to say that at first, i kind of had a thing for her. but i swear it didn't last for more than an hour, then it felt like a sort of spell was lifted of me and i could finally think of my own accord."

nayeon forgets about what ways she could let mina know that she never meant to hurt her without sounding too out of character with her best friend's confession. one single glare at the students that dared to stay in the common room even with their presence here is enough to make them usher out of it in a hurry, and the slytherin comes to sit beside sana. "what do you mean by that ? do you think she threw a spell at you ? i don't see how that would have been possible in the three seconds she looked at you, and no one is that good at wandless magic at our age."

"i'm not saying anything. i just don't trust her is all." sana sighs, her stare now serious. "don't tell me you haven't noticed how everyone seems to loose control around her ? jeongyeon has been throwing heart eyes at her for the past few days, and i know you don't have such a good opinion of her but... when was the last time she seriously considered asking a girl out ? yeah, exactly, it hasn't been the case since you-know-what happened between the two of you." 

"why exactly are you so obsessed with jeongyeon ? mina is... she's... sweet. i'm not sure she would need to cast a spell on anyone to get asked on a date, sana." 

"then how do you explain that the entire school has a thing for her ?" sana scoffs, wondering why her friend is so strong on denying what she spent the past few days trying to get information on, just to prove to her that she would be far better off without the new girl sticking to her side. "come on, not even that many people have tried to sleep with you. and you know that i never thought that would be possible."

nayeon pauses for long seconds, thinking about sana's assumptions- although she's not really sure of what exactly she's implying there. sure, there's something a bit out of the ordinary about the way mina has been acting. it seems like she's unfazed to the odd behaviors that surround her, girls and boys alike confessing their love to her in the middle of lunch or when they're walking through the hallways of hogwarts, interrupting their discussions until nayeon's glare works in scaring them away. 

and the blonde always has the same reaction. empathy fills her sad eyes as she lets them speak, lets them pour out their hearts to her until she takes pity in them and a small but clear 'no' escapes her lips. 

it's like she knows what's happening, like she knows what brought them to feel like this. and when words spread around of the same people she had rejected not attending classes anymore, only leaving their rooms to eat- when they were still deeming it necessary to do so- nayeon sure did find it suspicious. but nothing ever really made her feel like mina was ill-intentioned, nothing gave her the idea that she was the one making all of this happen on purpose.

nothing but the way nayeon herself has been feeling for the girl.

"where exactly are you getting to there, sana ?" nayeon sighs, feigning impatience. 

"that's the thing, nayeon. i don't know where i'm getting to, but i'm definitely going somewhere with this, don't you think ? you're the smart one there. i haven't read all of the books in that library you pretty much consider your second home but you have ! just... do something ! don't let yourself fall into her trap, i don't want my best friend to end like those pathetic idiots she rejected."

"i think you're overreacting. let's not talk about this again." nayeon's final words end their discussion, the slytherin standing up and walking out of the room without a glance at her best friend. 

sana groans into her hands, exasperated by her best friend being so oblivious, something that is rarely the case. nayeon is usually always a step ahead of everyone, and to think that right now she's so far behind has sana questioning if it's not already too late. 

but what the slytherin does not know is that nayeon spent the four hours that followed their discussion at her usual seat in the library, dozens of books on magical creatures on the now invisible table as she turned each page dreading the moment she would find an explanation to all of this.

  
\-----

  
"are you doing anything special ?" 

mina's voice surprises nayeon and she closes a book she had been reading about elves as soon as she realizes that the girl is standing right next to her. she sits in the chair next to nayeon's, thankfully too taken by nayeon to notice the pile of books on the table, brown orbs never quite leaving her blushing cheeks.

"no, nothing out of the ordinary." nayeon manages to say when she gets her racing heart back under control. "i was just doing some reading for an exam."

mina chuckles, eyes sweeping over the books mindlessly before they settle on her again, making her feel suddenly warm all over. and no matter how loudly her mind is screaming at her to be careful, to stay away from mina because she's probably hiding a lot from her, she just can't seem to find the force to look away in herself. their eyes lock onto one anothers, and it's back. the urge to get closer and closer to mina, close enough to feel her breath against her tingling lips, close enough not to need much more than a bit of courage to close the distance left between them until they both loose themselves in a soft kiss.

but nayeon does not have to be the one doing that, because with each passing second, mina's face gets closer to hers. it might be her hallucinating, it might be her thoughts confusing reality and fantasy. until it's not, mina's light smile far too real, too honest to be from her wild imagination. 

"exams surely are important but they're not all that matters in life, nayeon. how is it that studying is all you do ? don't you have hobbies, passions to distract you from being such a bookworm."

although she can sense the teasing in her tone, nayeon does not immediately understand that mina is probably just trying to get a reaction out of her. all she can think about, all that nvades her mind, are the shining brown eyes that stare at her in amusement. and the slytherin does something she usually would have hated herself for and blushes, a full on blush spreading from her cheeks up to her ears until she has no choice but to look away, the simple action hurting her greedy heart.

"i won't let you call me a bookworm twice. be careful, i'm far too good at taking revenge."

"so what ? are you going to make me levitate on the roof again ?" mina says in a small voice, suddenly reminded of memories that are still so fresh and painful. but in that moment, the veela is not able to feel pain. not when nayeon stares at her like she is now, strong regret shining in her frowning eyes.

"i'm... you can't imagine how sorry i am about this. i never meant to make you so scared, i thought you would know that i was there to hold you." nayeon avoids mina's stare, finding sudden interest in the ancient wood of the table. "and you might not know this yet, but i'm the best at levitation in this entire school. not even jihyo equals my talents."

she hasn't stopped replaying this moment in her head since she realized that mina had clearly been hurt. and all she knows, even through the sea of confusing emotions that have been taking over her mind these past few days, is that she will not ever hurt mina again.

"liar." mina's voice brings her back to the present, dangerously echoing her inner thoughts. "i bet i'd be so much better at making you or anything levitate than you were with me. my feet barely left the ground, and i could have countered your spell far too easily." 

laughter fills the usually quiet library, first coming from mina until nayeon joins her, a flash of shock passing through her eyes from the unexpected provocation. and as if to prove her point, mina takes her wand from the inner pocket of her robes and with a murmur, all of the books nayeon had diligently placed on the table fly back to their initial place, without mina ever looking away from her.

nayeon stares at her in disbelief, until her inner slytherin takes over and she stands up from her seat, a hand grabbing mina's as she walks out of the room with a happy jump in each of her steps.

mina silently notes that this is the first time nayeon isn't leaving her behind to catch up on her own, her hand tightening around hers. to make sure that this is real. 

and it is, more real than ever.

  
\-----

  
nayeon spends the rest of the day showing her levitation skills to mina- and she has to admit that the slytherin was not all talks there when she succeeds in actually writing quite clearly in the sand they find next to the lake with a levitating stone. 

the words read 'you won't ever beat me at this' and mina takes her up on her challenge. but instead of writing, she does what she knows best. the features she has memorized by heart appear in the sand, and when nayeon's hold on her hand tightens as she recognizes the shape of the drawing, the veela realizes that they haven't let go of one another ever since they left the library. nayeon is suddenly standing very close to her side, her shoulder bumping into mina's in what is probably an attempt at making her loose the concentration that such a task asks from her.

too taken by her will to finish the drawing, mina does not notice the smile that spreads on nayeon's lips, nor does she see the tears that form in her eyes to accompany it. and that's certainly why nayeon finally allows herself to feel, allows herself to simply be.

no one is watching her. no one is there to judge her or to question her behavior. she doesn't have to be mean, doesn't have to force herself into a mold made to protect her around mina. because although she fears that the blonde girl might unexpectedly look up from her task to find her with unshed tears shining in her eyes, she does not fear what her reaction might be.

her own face appears in the sand, and she wonders if mina is drawing the wide smile that she wears in her own portrait from memory or from her imagination. nayeon has not seen such pure happiness in her own expression for years, and only just then does it become clear to her that the drawing mirrors her current smile.

sana's warning is the last thing she thinks of in that moment, although the thought of mina having cast a spell on her would far from surprise her anymore.

"i have to admit that you're good at this." nayeon says with a small pout when she sees that mina has finished and is waiting for her verdict- more like waiting for praises judging from her proud smile. "but you're missing a little something that i have mastered."

"what is it ?" mina eyes her work, searching for flaws, for anything that nayeon could have seen that she might have missed. although she tried really hard to focus on her wand, ignoring nayeon's presence right next to her, watching over her shoulder, had been a nearly impossible task. 

"you're not attentive enough to your surroundings." 

and before she can find time to understand what that means, cold hits the side of her face, not too hard, but enough for her to accidentally let go of her wand in shock. shaking her head, she brushes the snow away with her now free hand, and receives another snowball right in the forehead as she leans down to retrieve her precious wand. laughter fills her ears, devoid of any bad intentions, or of that darkness that she usually finds in the slytherin's chuckles and sometimes near hysterical laughs. 

it's as pure as the snow that she finally succeeds in brushing away from her face, some of the white falling down her robes and slowly melting on the fabric, wet patches of snow visible to anyone that would stand close enough.

the veela looks up her own figure to find that the slytherin is running away, leaving traces in the crunching snow with each of her steps as three small snow balls levitate around her wand. ones that she probably intends on launching at her at the first occasion. a smile graces her blushing face, cheeks colored a light red from the cold, and mina doesn't think twice before following after her.

the faster nayeon runs- which is really not that fast- the easier it gets for mina to catch up and the slytherin wonders if she did not overestimate her own abilities when it comes to sports. (it's not her fault that broom flying is far easier than running.) 

it doesn't take long for mina to be right behind her, close enough for her to hear her soft pants as she not only focuses on running, but also on avoiding the snow that nayeon throws her way. the slytherin hides behind the first tree she finds, and is waiting for mina with a large amount of snow in her hand, her plans unfortunately not working out as she had imagined when the slytherin ends up being the one to surprise her.

"you're so gonna pay for this." are the last words she hears, whispered in her ear, before she gets submerged by attacks from the other girl. snow falls into her robes, and she shivers, still laughing even when she realizes that it's melting on her bare skin. 

at some point, they fall down to the floor, both suddenly reminded of their first meeting as mina sits on top of her waist. intense eyes focus on one another for long seconds, as if suspended in time. nayeon's smile never drops, widening when she sees it mirrored on mina's lips.

neither of them notice the headmistress staring at their struggling forms from far away, watching over them with a light smile from the window of her office. neither do they notice the girl that turns her back to them, stepping back into the castle, a hand fixing her dark green tie as anger invades her worried mind.

the moment is broken by mina throwing the snow she had succeeded in accumulating in her hand to her face, some of it unfortunately ending up in nayeon's mouth as it had been thrown open in deep laughter. mina feels bad when she sees the dark haired girl struggling to brush the white snow away although her smile never quite dies down, and she helps her, hands taking ahold of her cheeks gently and brushing the remaining snow with her thumbs to uncover red cheeks- if it's from the snow or the fact that mina has never been this close to her before, the veela does not know.

"peace ?" mina stands up, offering her hand to nayeon in a peace offering which the slytherin seems to take. that is, right before she brings mina down to the floor with her, standing up on her own and brushing the snow that sticks to her robes. the veela follows after her, choosing not to take revenge again because she knows that nayeon won't stop this until she's had the last word.

"here, take my scarf. i made it myself." mina says as they start making their way to the castle, nayeon wrapping her arms around herself as strong shivers course through her body. 

she stops to face mina, and lets her wrap it around her cold neck, mina tying it in a light knot before her hand falls back in nayeon's. her thumbs caresses her knuckles softly, and nayeon suddenly feels warm all over, the cold of the snow that falls lightly around them forgotten.

and with each second she spends holding mina's hands, it feels like the ice walls she had built around her heart melt, allowing it to beat faster than it has in years.

nayeon had wanted to lie, but in that moment, love seems far too good to be ignored.

  
\-----

"hey, mina." nayeon calls out her name right after she turned away to walk to her room, having walked the slytherin to hers. 

"yes ?" she turns back around, staring at her with confused eyes as to what nayeon wants to tell her.

the slytherin takes a deep breath, one supposed to give her the last bit of courage she needs to do this. slowly, she walks until she's standing right in front of mina. and it's back, that confusing feeling spreading all over her heart, one that makes her forget anything she might have wanted to tell her. all she can think about is what it must feel like, to have mina be hers, to hold her hand and kiss her until she has to pull away, breathless. 

nayeon licks her lips, eyes trailing down the constellation of moles that grace mina's face until they land on her lips, and that feeling of warmth only increases, as if telling her that this is exactly what she should be doing. as if pushing her to act on her most intimate wishes, ones that she has tried to suppress ever since she met mina. 

but she doesn't need anymore bravery than she already has, because before she can think of doing so, mina is the one closing the gap between them.

her hands frame nayeon's cheeks as her lips mold onto hers in a light kiss, the slytherin's hands falling on her waist as she lets her take the lead. time stops, and nayeon knows that it will only continue to flow once she'll have pulled away. and oddly enough, her mind empties of any worries and all she can focus on is the way mina's lips feel against hers, as cold as the snow they had played in and yet making her feel warm all over, the blush on her cheeks only intensifying.

and mina, mina will think about the consequences of her actions later on. but regret is the furthest thing from her mind now as her eyes slip shut. something about the perfection of this moment is far too dangerous, something about the way they come to be as one although they've met a bit more than a week ago. it confirms her idea, and that's when mina knows, that's when she knows that she does not want to let herself die like those who did not receive love of their soulmates.

that's when mina decides that no matter what happens, no matter what hardships she'll have to face, she will fight. even if she has to loose herself while trying not to loose nayeon. 

nayeon returns the kiss with passion, and the veela feels like wings grow from her shoulder blades, making her feel like she's levitating in the slytherin's arms. she pulls away first, having a hard time breathing as her own emotions overwhelm her. 

the last thing mina remembers is having walked away from nayeon after the girl had entered her room, the cherry color of her lipstick smudged lightly from the intensity of the kiss, and that beautiful smile that tattooed itself onto her heart wide on her lips. it's amazing, how good such short seconds of a shared kiss felt to her. 

it makes her feel invincible. it drives her with a newfound force and hope, and she stays in the high that kissing nayeon brought her to for long hours afterwards, laying awake in bed. two fingers touch her lips in disbelief, and she thinks she can still feel the trace of nayeon's lips on her own.

and then everything comes crashing down. 

  
\------

  
the euphoria is replaced by hatred, darkening her already scarred heart. 

late into the night, the sobs quiet down. a sign that she succeeded in falling asleep after long hours of a struggle between her own feelings and the fear that had taken over them, burying them under the surface of a deep and dark lake of emotions.

the slytherin is scared. she fears that allowing mina to get ahold of her heart would only end in destruction. 

a long time ago, nayeon swore to herself that she would never let anyone get to her. it was a quick promise, one made as she faced the consequences of letting someone in, of giving them the power to make her happier than she could ever be. but they had chosen to destroy, and with it left a broken girl on their wake.

but the scars never healed, and it will not take much for them to reopen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i might have lied when i tagged this fic with light angst 
> 
> :)
> 
> nakookys on tumblr and miIfyeon on twitter! ^^  
> my kofi is nakookys as well! <3


	3. iii. hardest to love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from hardest to love by the weeknd 
> 
> there are like 500 words of fluff somewhere in there (kinda... yeah... not really...) 
> 
> enjoy<3 !

nayeon is scared, and the only way she finds to protect herself is to hurt others. but what she doesn't know yet is that this won't work, not this time, not with mina.

not when she's already fallen so deep.

ignoring the girl she'd grown to consider her friend- that is until that one fateful moments, one that she has been trying her hardest to forget- is close to impossible. and this she finds out quite fast. because mina doesn't understand, she doesn't know what she did wrong, doesn't know why the happiness she used to find in her brown eyes has been replaced by never ending pain. of course mina wouldn't give up on her so easily, of course she had to fall for a soul that's just as stubborn as she is. 

not only does mina never leaves her side, nayeon also finds that hurting her is far from being as easy as it should be. at first, she believed that being rude to her until she would give up and ran away, like everyone always does when they realize that there's no use in trying to make her change, would be matter of a day. and yet, with each remarks that she assailed her with every day, mina stayed. she continued to eat every meal with them, and she took punch after punch into her already hurting heart, because there was nothing else that she could do- at least nothing else that seemed to be a better option.

but then nayeon couldn't do this anymore, couldn't stand the pain that flashed through her eyes every time she criticized her. and all of this only worked in scaring her even more.

and before she knew it, nayeon was snapping at mina in front of everyone in the dining hall, rage filled eyes trying to ignore the hurt that radiated from the blonde girl, taking over the usual warmth that illuminated nayeon's face like the first sunlight of the year. she doesn't remember what words she used, doesn't even know if what she said made sense or if it was all of the anger and the fear that had accumulated in her mind storming out in a mess of insults and words she didn't mean to ever say. no, all that nayeon can see afterwards is the form of a girl, the one that seems vital to her, running away with diamonds like tears streaming down her cheeks.

everyone had looked at her, and those looks she won't forget either. shame had invaded her mind when she had realized the pity everyone clearly took in mina. a shame that will surely never disappear, not when the smile that used to be tattooed on her own heart has been replaced by ice cold tears, tears that she herself caused, tears that were meant for her and no one else.

nayeon had never seen mina actually cry, and the only time she had seen tears forming in her eyes was because she missed her dog back home and wanted to send him a letter. nayeon had laughed and told her that dogs couldn't read, that she would know if it were the case because she herself has one. but instead of proving her wrong, mina's tears had made her eyes quite literally sparkle and she had asked to see her dog with the purest form of hope in her voice.

it's a never ending cycle. 

everytime she thinks about mina, about the pain she inflicted on her, the happy memories come back to the surface, as if there too taunt her, to make her hate herself even more because she clearly was not doing that enough before, right ? and then when those memories disappear, submerged by the one moment she ruined everything, she goes back to thinking about how hurt mina had been on that day.

it's been a week since she's last seen mina. a week since she has not slept much more than two hours each nights. sleep only seems to welcome her in its arms when she finally accepts that her demons are here and will be there until she doesn't try to scare them away like they've been terrorizing her for years. it might sound like a small thing to accept, especially if she does not act on it later on, but nayeon has spent the past few years of her life trying to forget. and to forget, she denied each and every hurtful memory that sometimes came back to the surface of the dark lake of her mind, burying them deep into water again.

she avoids staring at the back of the class when she steps into one, immediately going for her seat. the chair next to hers stays empty for a few minutes, and looking away from the place that used to be mina's is hard. but it's thankfully replaced by her best friends shortly after, sana always arriving a bit late but still being here for nayeon when she needs her to.

they haven't talked about this yet. but they will, when nayeon will feel like all of this is too much for her to handle on her own, she'll come running back to her bubbly friend. although she has noticed that sana seems to be acting a bit out of the ordinary recently, her smiles sad whenever she's around nayeon, lacking the usual joy that's so characteristic of sana, ones that a part of nayeon almost misses because she needs them, needs her best friend more than ever right now.

she knows that sana is dying to ask her about what happened. but she's always been good- or at least better than anyone- at knowing nayeon's limits. and right now, mentioning mina to her is more than off limits.

on the following day, nayeon eats in her own room, glad that it's bigger than most thanks to her head girl status. she's never felt more alone than in that moment. a panicked sana knocks on her door, and it's like a silent message sent to her, one that tells her that she'll never be quite alone, that she'll always be able to count on someone.

"mina wasn't there at lunch, you know." the slytherin says as she steps into the room, unlocking the door with the charm nayeon herself taught her. the door closes behind her and before she does so, memories of mina kissing her right in front of it invade her mind again. "you should have come. i don't think she'll want to approach you again anyway."

and sana is probably trying to cheer her up, probably thinks that all of this happened because nayeon wanted it to, not because nayeon doesn't even know what she wants anymore. but all it does is make her heart break a bit more, the sound of breaking glass echoing in her ears until she realizes that it's the glass she was holding. her best friend stares at her worriedly, and quickly comes to help, casting an easy spell to make the glass shards disappear although one unfortunately caught in the palm of nayeon's hands.

"nayeon ? do you want me to clean that myself or should we go get someone ?" she asks when her best friend does not seem to be reacting at all, her eyes empty of any emotions even when she looks up to stare at her.

"help me." 

and there's so much unsaid words in her short plea that sana understands exactly what she means, understands that this small shard of glass is the last thing she could care about. 

"alright. here, let me." she sits next to her, bringing the only chair left in the room to her side of it. the pain is one that she doesn't even register, the residues of sana's magic tickling her hand softly when she uses one of the healing spells she has taught herself. (she chose to find out how to heal others when her own best friend became too hurt to be helped. and right now, as she cleans the small amount of blood from her hand, sana wishes she knew how to repair hearts too.)

they don't attend anymore classes on that day, and when jihyo is made aware of them having ditched school to rest in her room, she decides that having a talk with nayeon seems like the good thing to do. although she fears that she might be too late.

  
\-----

  
mina thinks of leaving. 

there's not much she could do here anymore, not when everything she had anticipated, a small light of hope telling her that perhaps she was wrong, had come true.

nayeon is hard to love, far too hard for a girl like mina. a girl who has chosen to believe that this could be possible, that they could be together. right when she decided to fight, right when her one and only dream became reality, a reality that she tasted and won't be able to ever let go of, the dark waves that follow nayeon everywhere she goes came crashing down on her. and ever since then, mina has been drowning.

but what good would leaving do exactly ? it's been a week since she last talked to nayeon, a week since she last heard her laugh, full of unaltered and honest joy. and with each passing day, her heart feels like it's shattering, bleeding out until nayeon becomes nothing but a hurtful memory. one that will never leave her mind at peace, one that will keep her smile from ever being an honest one again. leaving would mean not ever seeing nayeon again, leaving would mean accepting that she's lost the woman she should be next to for the rest of her life.

leaving would equal to a tragic ending to what already is a cliché, sad love story. and mina simply can not let this happen. she can not stop running after the last weak flame of hope that shines in nayeon's darkened heart. 

this is why she tried to get nayeon to talk to her, tried to get her to understand that they're meant to be together without having to mention her being a veela. but each attempt at speaking to the slytherin ended with her bringing her down with her snake like tongue, until mina found herself so hurt that she couldn't reply back anymore.

and then nayeon had snapped and mina had seen the flame dying witch each scream that left past her lips, the same ones she had been kissing not long ago.

but mina stays, and looks at the being she treasures the most from far away, aware of the destruction that will surely come her way if she ever steps close enough to let her grasp at her heart and reduce it to a pile of ashes.

days pass, and as expected, the pain only increases. even when she finds friends- if that's what she can call them- to spend time with, her days not as empty as they used to be which does make it easier to forget, even if it's just for a few seconds. making friends was all she wanted when she first stepped foot in here and was scared of what the future would bring to her, and yet now that she has them, all she can think about is that they might be amazing and funny and so utterly kind, but they're not nayeon and will never replace the emptiness she left in her heart.

sometimes, she thinks she sees nayeon staring at her from afar. like that one time they were all playing around the lake, momo running after chaeyoung because she didn't want to accept that she was better at quidditch, and she looked up from her friends to find a shadow she knows far too well staring at them from behind a window. it could have been anyone else, but the fact that the shadown disappeared as soon as it realized that it had been caught confirmed the veela's suspicions. 

but how could she blame nayeon when she herself needs to see her at least once a day to be able to simply survive ? 

mina is lost, and she's starting to become as scared as nayeon. but she won't give up, not when nayeon is all she desires. not when she's ready to loose so much not to loose her.

  
\-----

nayeon walks around the lake, searching for something she does not know.

nothing compares to the last time she was here, mina's hand wrapped tightly in hers, warming her up until she forgot the stone cold of the snow they were both surrounded by. she told sana that she needed a bit of fresh air and left the room in which they have been staying in for two days with a book. it lies forgotten in her hand when her feet stop in the sand, her eyes falling on what only seems to be a good memory made painful by time. 

there in the sand, traces of what used to be her own portrait are still visible. the stone that mina used to draw probably under water now. a soft wave comes crashing over the remaining lines of her smile and erases it, as if pulling it back under the dark water.

nayeon stays there and watches as it disappears completely, an unreadable expression in her eyes as she wonders if she will ever get to smile again like mina made her. and when she remembers what she came here to do, she decides to walk away, the place where a drawing of the few hours of happiness she was able to get replaced by the print of her shoes as she leaves it behind herself. 

and never looks back.

  
\-----

  
"nayeon ? can we talk ?" 

jihyo's voice brings her out of her thoughts, a soft gasp slipping past her lips as she turns around to find the unexpected visitor. the headmistress is waiting in the doorway, wind blowing in her shoulder length silver hair, and a cat, white this time, slips between her and the door to join nayeon. the slytherin nods, gently petting the cat absentmindedly as it jumps on the wall she's sitting on. the silence is interrupted by its purrs and by the wind hitting against the door.

nayeon used to think that wherever jihyo went, the wind followed. but it is not scary nor strong, it's a soft breeze that caresses her hair, one that envelops her in a transparent hug, one that has lulled her to sleep many times before and that still today has the same soothing effect on her. its sound like a childhood lullaby, bringing peace to her usually tormented mind.

her robes are immobile and only move with each of her steps, as if the wind passed through her but never quite touched her, until she sits next to nayeon, the cat jumping down from the wall onto the roof and going on with his life.

"talk about what exactly ?" the slytherin does not feign a smile. there's no use in doing so, not when jihyo knows her far too well, not when she is with the only person that never quite lets nayeon get away with lying.

"i missed you. you don't pass by the office anymore, don't take time to talk to me anymore. it amazes me, you know, how grown up you are now." her smile is a sad one, and nayeon knows that jihyo is probably thinking back to old times, times when she came to her office every night to get her daily dose of hot chocolate and cuddles. she was young then, although she sometimes wonders if there ever came a time when she simply allowed herself to be a child. being forced go grow up so quickly, she's not sure she ever did. 

"don't pretend that this is what you came all the way here to tell me." nayeon chuckles. jihyo is not the only one here who's able to read the other to perfect. 

the headmistress lets silence take over for a short while, like the calm before the storm that she can hear coming.

"i saw you on that day." jihyo confesses, looking up at the blue sky as the dark clouds that had been looming over nayeon's head are chased away by the wind to reveal soft sunlight. rays of sunshine touch her cheeks in a soft kiss, and that's all it takes for her to understand what she means. 'that day' was the last time she felt what grew to become the familiar warmth of mina. it was a time when the snow seemed to melt everytime mina's smile widened. a time she hates herself for missing. "you were happy, nayeon. for short hours, i saw the innocent little girl you once were, one that only wanted to run around the snow and play with the three spells she had been taught. and then on the next day, she was gone."

nayeon shakes her head slowly, getting ready to deny her even though she knows that jihyo is right. as always. "she never came back and never will. i think you confounded what your heart wishes to see and what actually happened." 

"when have i read you wrong, nayeon ?" jihyo sighs and one of her hands leaves the pocket of her robe to hold nayeon's. it does not feel as warm as mina's but it will do for now. "i don't know what happened between the two of you but as you can guess, i can imagine pretty well what took place between the walls of the castle that is now mine. the time has come for you to let go, and mina might just be the perfect opportunity to allow you to do so."

nayeon looks down to stare at their joined hands for long seconds, getting reminded of a very similar picture, only then her hand was smaller and almost entirely hidden by jihyo's. "you know that i couldn't let this go on. she was getting too close, i wouldn't bear getting hurt again."

her eyes fill with tears as she says outloud was has been tormenting her mind for so long, what she hid from everyone around her but one person. 

"mina is not your parents, nayeon." 

and that's exactly what she had been waiting to hear, what she knew this conversation would lead to as soon as she heard footsteps that are so undeniably jihyo's coming up the stairs. it's what she needed, and of course jihyo would know exactly what to say to make her loose the tight leash she until then succeeded in keeping on her emotions.

the woman brings her in a tight hug, a hand resting on top of her head as she holds it close to her, and only then does nayeon notice the tears streaming down her face, only then does the sound of her painful sobs reach her ears. only then does she allow herself to truly cry. because even if it makes her feel like she was brought down to her knees again, she knows that jihyo will be there to help her up.

(just like mina did after making her trip, holding her by the waist and only letting go when she was sure that nayeon would be fine on her own.) 

it has been too long since the slytherin allowed herself to simply feel, too long since she let out the rage filled torrent of tears that threatens to break out every once in awhile, when memories of a barely forgotten past come back to inhabit her nightmares. her hands grip the robes tightly, knuckles turning white as she refuses to let go, her body shaking with each sob that courses through it. whispered praises reach her ears when the sound of her sobs calm down, ones in which jihyo reassures her that nothing was ever her fault.

nayeon has always been good at blaming others for her own pain, because she's blamed herself for far too long to bear doing it again. 

when her sobs finally die down, her breathing having gone back to normal, she doesn't yet move. jihyo's hold is one that she has missed, one that she gets too rarely due to the headmistress being very busy, one that she needs to be able to look at herself in a mirror again.

"i know that you're scared. you used to be such a brave girl, even after they left. you would cry, but they never were able to erase the smiles from your lips. and then they came back to ruin what was left of you." jihyo stares into the void, anger flashing through her eyes. "they're gone now. and they shouldn't keep you from living your life. you should not keep yourself from loving because of them." 

and deep down, nayeon knows that it's true. everything she's done to mina, all of the pain she's put her through, was because of the scars they left all over her heart. 

her relationship with her parents has been close to non-existent from what she can remember. the only times they were part of her life all brought her to become the broken soul that she is now. from the first time they left her, abandoning her without even a letter to explain their choice left behind, when she woke up to an empty apartment, thinking that they had left to buy her a birthday cake only to never see them come back. she should have known then, not to expect anything from them anymore. but she was so young, so oblivious to what all of this meant, that when jihyo was designated to keep her and raise her as the aunt she never had, she was happy with her new life.

it took her a long time to find out that her parents were in reality not the heroes she had believed them to be. and this, she realized when they suddenly reappeared into her life, standing behind the door that she had herself opened. 

she was ten, and had bared her heart to them once again, waiting for warmth and love that never came. instead, a wand was pointed at her head, and before who she does not consider to have been her father anymore could whisper a spell that would have surely brought an end to her life, jihyo had pushed her away from the doorway and pronounced a spell she today knows to have been dark magic.

the sound of their bodies falling down to the floor in front of her does not haunt her as much as it used to. not once she grew to forgive jihyo for having done such a thing to the only family she ever had, not when she grew old enough to understand that this was the only way for her to still be here today.

only jihyo knows how hard all of this had been on her as she was there every step of the way, helping her heal. but it never really worked and nayeon never really healed. it has been a long time since an event brought back such memories to the front of her mind so strongly, and that certainly explains why she does not want to see mina again. something about the blonde girl makes her want to be vulnerable, makes her feel like she could bare her heart to her and yet she would never abuse of having any kind of power over her. but nayeon has not allowed herself to be vulnerable since that fateful night and changing this has made all of her fears come crashing on her again, threatening to make her fall down again. 

only this time, nothing tells her that she will be able to stand back up.

"what if... what if she hurts me ? what if i tell her that i want to be by her side only for her to reject me or worse, to mock me." nayeon finally leaves jihyo's embrace to speak, cheeks tainted by the traces of fallen tears. the headmistress dries them when a handkerchief, but it does not erase the pain that came with her tears.. "i can only take so many blows before it brings me down entirely, jihyo. and all mina would need to do to break me is to say something as simple and easy as a 'no'. t-this is too dangerous and you know it."

"i've never lied to you when i believed that you were making big mistakes before and i won't start doing it now." jihyo sighs, her voice full of compassion. "mina is... i don't think you will ever find someone to fill the void that will appear in your heart if you let her go, honey. i can't tell you why i know this, because it's not my story to share, but something tells me that you two are made for each other."

nayeon blinks, wondering what exactly jihyo is hiding from her. she knows that she's telling the truth, knows that this is certainly not a made up lie to get her to run back to mina. and it makes it all so much scarier, to think that fate might be involved in this. to think that no matter how far she goes, it will always be there to catch up, this feeling of emptiness that sometimes resonates in her ears louder than the screams of her demons.

"loving me... loving me is too hard, and you know this better than anyone does. all that will get out of this is me hurting her again and again until she gives up and goes back to where she came from. forgetting me shouldn't be too hard- at least, it seems easier than falling for me."

"just think of one thing, nayeon, and don't you think of lying to yourself this time. if it weren't for your past, if it weren't for you being scared of being left forgotten, wouldn't you try ?" 

silence follows her question, only broken by the sound of birds arriving and with it winter leaving. it will stay without an answer, because although jihyo already knows what choice nayeon will make in the end, she wants her to figure all of this out by herself. she has grown to understand that protecting her from getting hurt is close to impossible, not when she is the one causing herself such pain.

"my door will always be opened to you, dear. don't forget what i told you." the headmistress stands up and nayeon follows after her, bringing her in a soft hug, arms wrapped around her back. "don't keep yourself from being loved because you're scared of what the future will bring to you. you have everything you need right now, you just need to realize it." 

nayeon stays on the roof for short minutes after that, torn between wanting to run back to mina and apologize for everything, and leaving all of this behind her until she can live a normal life again.

what she does not yet know is that mina has already made a choice for the both of them. 

  
\-----

  
nayeon takes a lot of time to think.

it might sound odd that she would only do so now, but mina was far from the truth when she realized that the slytherin has always been one to act before she even considered thinking about what would be good for her.

she goes back to class, and finds her seat back in the dining hall, which does seem to make her best friend happy although sana's smile drops when she announces to her that she would rather stay alone in her room from now on. she's spent the past three nights sleeping next to her best friend in a bed that is barely big enough to fit two bodies, an arm wrapped around her waist as she slept- and when she woke up in the middle of the night from nightmares, sana's hold on her waist only tightened, lulling her back to sleep and chasing away her bad dreams. 

mina is still there, a shadow that seems to be following her everywhere she goes. and yet nayeon never feels threatened by the said shadow, and the more she thinks about it, the more she believes that letting it take over her heart would succeed in bringing a burning light onto her worries, forcing them to disappear for good this time.

they don't speak to each other, but mina tries a few tentative smiles when she finds nayeon staring at her.

the slytherin does not return them.

(but when she walks through the corridors of hogwarts at night, doing her head girl duties, and no one is there to see her, her lips lift in a light smile as she remembers her short interaction with the girl.) 

it's not much, but it reminds nayeon of the fact that perhaps, if she hypothetically were to change of thought about what she wants their relationship to be, she wouldn't be too late. the more she begins to consider adding mina into her life, giving her that one small place in her heart that for now stays empty, the more she worries about missing her chance with the blonde girl. what if she suddenly decides that this is what she wants, that mina is worth putting her own life at risk, only to find that she took too much time to act on her feelings, that for once, thinking was perhaps not the best of solutions ?

but what nayeon does not know is that mina considers nayeon as her forever, and if she has to wait years to be by her side again, to feel her soft lips against hers, she will not hesitate to do so.

the veela does notice a change in nayeon's reactions to her presence around her. it's light, mostly because nayeon is still amazingly good at hiding what she feels, but it's still there, and of course mina is the one catching it. it's like nayeon does not try to hate her anymore, like she has made the choice not to hurt her again, not aware of how much this distance she's put between them hurts so much more than any remarks that she could make to mina. but she doesn't try to get closer anyway, not wanting to risk ruining the efforts the slytherin seems to be making.

mina's eyes leave the book she was not really reading, her mind too taken by nayeon to do such a thing, when she notices someone sitting next to her on the bench she has been occupying for an hour now, bathing in the first rays of sunshine that came with spring. the veela raises a curious eyebrow when silver hair appears in her vision, a color that lets her know who exactly is sitting next to her.

the headmistress crosses her legs, leaning back as she takes a gulp of fresh air, one that is not as cold as the one we used to find here a few days ago. a mysterious smile graces her lips and mina waits, and waits, because she knows that she's not the one who's supposed to speak first right now.

"i see that you've made friends." mina closes her books and it stays forgotten in her laps, her attention now entirely focused on the heart-warming smile of the headmistress. "i'm glad to know that your integration in our dear school is going well."

a smile of her own graces her lips as mina thinks about momo, chaeyoung and tzuyu, and how lucky she is to have them. they're the only ones with whom she's shared the part of her life that she still tries to keep as a secret and all of them accepted it so well, more impressed by her nature than scared which is definitely not what she had been expecting. and the headmistress seems to be aware of it, judging from the knowing look in her eyes. 

"it took awhile but yes, i did." mina sighs, remembering the time she and nayeon used to be just as close.

"she'll come around." and mina doesn't need to think much about her words to know who exactly 'she' is. "i took classes about veelas when i was younger. and something tells me that you won't give up on her as others did in the past. right, mina ?"

"never, headmistress." mina eagerly shakes her head, and her answer seems to please jihyo.

"good. then our talk is over. i have to take care of my plants, one of them died a few days ago and the others are all trying to get over it." jihyo's eyes become sad as she stands up, waving goodbye at a confused mina until she disappears from her view. taking a deep breath, the last bit of bravery she needed seems to make itself known, and on this moment, mina makes the decision that not later than tomorrow, she'll tell everything to nayeon.

the headmistress' words are ones she took as a warning, a warning to be honest with nayeon. nothing good will come out of her hiding the truth from her. and if she ends damaging their relationship, then she'll simply have to fight even harder.

  
\------

  
the sound of knuckles hitting against the dark wood of her room's door makes her heavy heart beat fast, as if what is waiting for her behind said door is far from being as trivial as a nighttime visit. for a second, nayeon wonders if she's feeling like this because mina is the one standing behind her door. but another knock, this one a lot stronger than anything mina would have done echoes in the room- nayeon might have memorized what her knuckles hitting the door sound like, a soft thump resonating in her ears, in sink with her heartbeat.

a soft thump echoes in the room as she throws her glasses on top of her bedside and stands up from the bed, hoping for it to be someone she knows considering she's wearing the pajamas jihyo brought for her, a dark blue with small flying brooms, and has long ago cleared her face of any makeup.

"sana ?" the door opens to reveal her best friend, the slytherin still dressed in her uniform although her dark green tie is laying untied around her neck. the first thing that nayeon notices about her is the way she fiddles with her fingers, nervousness radiating off from her body as her eyes search to look behind nayeon, avoiding her stare at all cost. it's an odd sight, one that she rarely sees in her, and she wonders if this has anything to do with her presence here past curfew. "what are you doing here ? it's late."

sana swallows hard, as if trying to get her thoughts back in order before speaking. a light blush spreads on her cheeks, and she looks down at the floor shyly. "can i come in ? i need to talk to you about something. it's... it's kind of important."

nayeon's worried features shift into a smile, one that she always reserves for her best friend. most people in this school know that she and sana are absolutely inseparable. it has been that way ever since she first came here, sharing a wagon with sana in the train only to find that they both had a passion for slytherin fashion. still today, nayeon remembers the cry of joy that had echoed in the room as the hat had shouted 'slytherin' almost as soon as it had touched her head, the bubbly girl rushing to hug her, happy to know that the both of them would be sharing a house from then.

and of course nayeon has had other friends, but in the end, only sana ever really stayed by her side. they came and went, sometimes hurting her in the process, and her best friend was always here to comfort her afterwards, even when she was the one making others leave. in a way, sana seems like one of the few people in this world who actually understand nayeon, and all of the pain that comes with her. 

(even though sana does not know the entire story, she knows enough to be aware of the constant reassurance that she is loved and important that nayeon needs. and it's a good thing that sana has taken her role as her best friend to heart, perhaps even more than nayeon could imagine.)

"of course. sorry, it's a bit messy, i got frustrated with what i was reading and kind of threw my books everywhere." nayeon scratches the back of her head, looking around the floor, books scattered all over it. sana only chuckles and closes the door behind herself, watching as nayeon searches for her wand in her bedside table. in a whisper, she helps her and tidies the room before she can get a hand on her own wand, nayeon thanking her for her help.

"no problem. i've seen worse." sana is reminded of a time she found nayeon quite literally under a pile of books because she had taken too many from the library and had accidentally made them fall all over her. something about those times, about the past, was so much easier, and she almost finds herself missing it. 

"come here, let's talk." nayeon pats the empty space next to her on the bed, the room only illuminated by a soft light that floats around them, certainly one that she conjured when she came back from her rounds around the school earlier. "is something bothering you ?"

sana joins her on the bed, her hands gripping the edge tightly as she takes a deep breath. 

this is a moment she's waited for for entire years, a moment she's imagined in her head over and over again. it sometimes ended well, and sometimes not, but all that she knows right now is that this can not go on for much longer. she's lied to herself about needing to do this for long enough, lied to nayeon about her feelings for too long, and what good would waiting do to her ? in a few months, the year will end, and they will both go on separate ways. she doesn't want that to ever happen, doesn't want to think that she could have had what she desires the most in this world had she tried.

regrets are forever. whereas the pain could go away with time. 

nayeon's face seems calm, calmer than it has been these past few days, and although sana is not sure of what motivated this sudden change in her best friend, to know that she might finally let go of her demons warms her heart like the love that has enveloped it these last few years. sana sometimes thinks she cares about nayeon's happiness more than about her own. but she can't seem to find out if this is a mistake or not.

"i wouldn't say that it's bothering me but i've wanted to talk to you about this for a long time now, nayeon." sana avoids her best friend's piercing stare and stares at the wall they're facing, a light smile spreading on her lips when she sees the painting she and nayeon made together in their first year. the slightly oldest girl had just waited for sana to finish a relatively correct drawing before throwing purple paint all over it. she would have considered it ruined, if it weren't for how well the pink she had chosen went with nayeon's purple.

"well go on, what are you waiting for." nayeon hurries her, beginning to become impatient. 

"i don't know how to tell you this but recently, i found that i couldn't stand the thought of losing you to anyone. i've been wanting to stay by your side at all times and, to make you happy, you know ? it's been so long since i've gotten to see you smile and mean it, so long since you last seemed joyful and i do believe that i could be the one making you happy. that i could be the one for you." 

silence follows her confession, and sana doesn't dare look away from the drawing, her heart beating faster than it ever has in her chest. 

whereas nayeon can feel her heart breaking a bit more with every word that leaves her best friend's mouth. it does not break for her, no, but for the woman she knows that she will never love like she wants to be loved. one single name echoes inside of her mind in that moment as she imagines what it would be like, to let herself be loved by her bestfriend. 

and this name is not sana's.

the slytherin finally turns to look at her, and unshed tears shine in her eyes when she comes face to face with nayeon. it's certainly in that moment that sana understands that nayeon is too hard to love to let herself fall for her, and she probably knows that her feelings will never be returned like she so desperately wants them to. and yet, in a last act of bravery, a last act to show nayeon just how serious she is about loving her, sana's hands come to frame nayeon's face as she brings her in a kiss.

this one is different from the one she shared with mina. while mina's was full of hope for a shared future, sana's is relenting, it's her realizing that she will never get to experience this again and wanting to know what she'll be missing later on. nayeon's lips barely move against hers, but she lets sana gets the small taste of happiness she deserves, her best friend's soft lips not insisting but instead simply caressing hers in all of the tenderness and passion that defines her. 

sana was her best years. she was here through the good and the bad times, and always found a place for herself through nayeon's tears, a place that the slytherin herself will always keep for her. 

but nayeon has not long ago decided that lying would not bring anything good to her. so she does the only thing she can think of when sana pulls away, tears slowly cascading down her cheeks, and brings her in a tight hug. this might be the first time that nayeon is the one letting sana cry on her shoulder, the contrary being what usually happens. and it's hard for her to keep her own tears from falling as her best friend sobs in her arms, not even blaming nayeon for not returning her feelings.

instead of getting angry, instead of storming out of the room like nayeon would have certainly done if the situation was reversed, sana lets herself be held, and lets herself be loved although it's not in the way she would have dreamed of. 

it hurts, certainly more than her heart can take, to know that she will never be with nayeon. to know that all of those years, she's waited for the right moment, always by her side, protecting her like a guardian angel would, in vain. but sana knows that she can not leave, not even after all that nayeon put her through when she herself was trying to deal with her own pain. she could try, try to stay away until her feelings die down, but staying away from nayeon would mean letting go of a part of her life she has grown far too attached to.

with time, she'll come around to understand that she and nayeon were simply not meant to be. and she'll be happy, because nayeon's happiness has always been her one and only goal in life, even if it sometimes means having to pass on her own wellbeing for awhile. her arms tighten around her best friend, and when nayeon wipes her tears, she knows that she won't leave, knows that she'll always be able to count on her. 

they both will.

two broken souls, coming as one to heal, getting past the demons dancing in their hearts to become stronger, to become who they might not have wanted to be, but who they will someday be proud of. 

that night, as she falls asleep, this time with her own arm wrapped around sana's waist, nayeon realizes that she will never keep herself from love again because the past should stay exactly where it is. behind her. nayeon decides, as she replays sana's confession in her mind, that she wants her best friend's bravery to inspire her into becoming a better person. 

even if what she has to face makes fear invade her mind, even if she chooses to never look back, she will come out of all of this with something that is so much more important than reminiscing dark memories. 

that night, as she remembers each of her interactions with the girl her heart has grown to desire, nayeon decides that mina is worth it.


	4. iv. hallucinate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a bit shorter than usual, sorry about that.
> 
> i tried to make this as fluffy as i could! the next chapter will be the last one, so i'm planning quite a lot for it!^^
> 
> feedback is greatly appreciated :)
> 
> enjoy<3

mina knows that nayeon will never take the first step towards a reconciliation, knows that this will be her role. the slytherin's behavior might have changed, but she is still the same nayeon that mina fell for, with the arrogance that is so characteristically her. nayeon is too proud to ever bow down to someone, and coming to see mina to admit that she made a big mistake would certainly take a lot from her, which is why mina knows that she will have to take care of this herself.

the veela does not yet understand why nayeon has changed so much in the span of a few days, why the smiles that she shyly throws at her every day are now returned. but the nayeon she first met, the one that has been inhabiting her every thoughts for so long is back, and this she knows from the blush that spread on her cheeks when she quite literally bumped into mina on her way to her seat.

it was their first interaction in weeks, and she hasn't stopped thinking about it, the feeling of her hips under her hands as she tried to steady the blushing slytherin who refused to look up from the floor in shame made her believe that perhaps, perhaps this could work. nayeon had whispered a short apology before going to her seat, and mina had stayed in the same spot, lost in thoughts of nayeon, until momo had come to guide her back to her own seat, laughing as she mocked her mind's inability to work properly around nayeon.

(she never told her friends about nayeon, never even mentioned that her heart was taken when the girls kept on asking why she didn't accept any proposals from the people who had miserably fallen for her. 

and yet they had found out about what she thought to be a very well-hiden secret when they caught her staring at the slytherin dreamily, a hand poised on her desk and holding her face as she observed nayeon, a smile mirroring the slytherin's own one when sana whispered something in her ear. 

none of them ever were particularly fond of nayeon, especially because she used to cheat to make her quidditch team win- even though she was not a quidditch player, she was not kidding when she said that sports are not her thing- by throwing spells at the rival team from the bleachers in the middle of a match. momo and chaeyoung are both playing for gryffindor, and they've been taken to the ground on more than one occasion, momo even landing in the lake once, all of this because of nayeon. no one ever got seriously hurt, but their clothes were so covered in mud that they had to throw them away.

nayeon only stopped doing this when slytherins had so many house points- mostly because of her at that- that they barely needed to do anything but wait for the year to end to be sure to win. it's a shame that nayeon is just as smart as she is a good cheater, she makes it pretty much impossible to catch up.

although their relatively limited hatred pretty much disappeared into thin air when they realized that mina had more than a simple crush for her and that feelings had gotten involved. they've been trying to get them to end up together ever since then, and mina isn't sure she appreciates the fact that they call out nayeon's name and run away right after every time they see her, leaving a dumbfounded mina to shyly wave at the slytherin when she realizes that she's being stared at.

it's embarrassing, really. but it seems to make nayeon to smile that full on smile that feels as warm as the sun and as beautiful as they blooming flowers of spring, which is why she doesn't get too mad at her friends.)

mina doesn't have a plan, because time has showed her that nayeon is far too unpredictable to plan anything. but what she knows that she ought to do, is tell her everything, from the fact that she is a veela- which could go well, at least that's what she believes now that she's seen the reactions of her friends who were all so heartwarming- to the hard part that will be telling her that they are bound for eternity.

something tells her that nayeon might not react exactly well to this confession. if mina has understood one thing about nayeon, it is her need to control everything around her, from her friends to her studies. every aspect of her life has to be planned, everything that happens to her should be because she wanted it to, or else she panicks and runs away, hurting others on the way. 

but the same part of her mind also tells her that someday, she will understand that it is rarely good to fight against fate, and that controlling it is just as impossible. 

mina hopes for a future in which nayeon will be opened to listening to her, hopes that although she doesn't have a plan, doesn't knownhow to tell such a thing to a girl that has already hurt her so much, everything will be okay for them from now on. it's not much to hope for, and it's a good thing that nayeon finds herself wishing for the same every time she sees mina, her heart begging her to stop playing around and actually talk to her like she should have done so long ago.

but when have things ever been easy with her ? no, im nayeon always plays hard to get, even though she knows that all it would take for her to be with mina would be to ask. she's not completely sure of it, but every time mina should have gotten hurt to the point of entirely shutting her out, even when she brought her down to the ground in a final hit, the blonde girl still found a way to stand back up and heal her own pain, still found the force in herself to smile at nayeon even when she pretended that she was invisible.

mina believes that they'll be alright in the end. and the more time passes, the closer she is to getting what her heart truly desires.

  
\-----

  
although her attention has been mostly focused on nayeon, mina has also noticed a change in sana's behavior, especially when it comes to her relationship with her, which used to be made up of dark glares and threats until recently. 

sana does not seem as angry as she used to be, and once even shot a smile that almost seemed like the sign of an apology to her when nayeon wasn't looking. she pretended to have been looking at her books when nayeon turned around to find her staring at mina. she's not entirely sure of what that means, not sure of what she did to make all of the hatred that seemed to reside in her heart for her suddenly disappear, but she supposes it has something to do with her finally trusting mina not to hurt nayeon.

their first actual encounter is not one she has forgotten, and with time, she began to understand exactly why sana had tried to intimidate her all of sudden. it reassures her to know that nayeon can count on someone like sana, someone who clearly was very protective of her and at the first sign of a what could be a threat to nayeon, intervened to push her away.

unfortunately- or fortunately for mina- it had not really worked, mostly because the veela knew that someday sana would understand that she never intended on hurting nayeon. and when she feels eyes on her in the middle of lunch, looking up from the spoon full of the soup she's drinking, to find sana staring right at her, and the corners of her lips lift into a smile, mina wonders if she hasn't understood this already.

the veela returns the smile, and it only disappears when tzuyu hits her arm lightly to get her to listen to what chaeyoung has been talking about for the past few minutes- something about how she once stole one of jihyo's cats and tried to put the blame on momo, only for the headmistress to believe she wanted to adopt one, which explains why she now has to take care of the same cat she was only supposed to use as a prank on her best friend.

everyone around the table laughs when chaeyoung ends the story with a pout as momo smiles smugly, proud to know that she was the one to call the head girl on her, and not needing much more than a little push from a fellow gryffindor mina does not yet know to talk about the moment nayeon brought chaeyoung to the headmistress' office by the ear. 

"don't make fun of that! it was red for days afterwards, i bet she cursed me too. as if walking me by the ear wasn't enough to begin with." the gryffindor's pout intensifies, and the table rolls in laughter again. 

mina looks away from her friends to stare at nayeon, and they both lock eyes for long seconds, her smile still hidden by her hand as she continues to laugh. contrary to what happened before, nothing is able to force her to look away, and it seems to be the case for the slytherin as well. nayeon does not return her smile, but she looks lost in her thoughts as her eyes trail down mina's moles until they land on her lips when she moves her hand away to tuck a strand of blonde hair back behind her ear.

"hey, can someone tell mina to stop eye flirting with the person who's the reason i've had to read ten books on how to take care of a cat!" chaeyoung's voice barely reaches her ears. instead, mina gulps, biting her bottom lip lightly which gives her confirmation that this is exactly where nayeon was looking at when the slytherin blushes, looking up to stare right at her in shame of having been caught ogling the girl she still supposedly dislikes.

(nayeon should remember that lying to mina is not something she will ever be able to succeed in doing. not because the desire to do so won't ever be here, no, she's still the same nayeon after all. but simply because her actions always seem to betray her actual thoughts, even when she desperately tries to hide those. 

all it took was one single look from mina for her heart to beat surprisingly fast in her chest and her mouth to miss her taste. 

this goes beyond anything she ever felt before, even when she and jeongyeon got together. their relationship was good but jeongyeon is perhaps not someone she ever really loved. as the hufflepuff's quidditch team captain, one that has made her team nearly win against the slytherins on more than one occasion- with it sometimes even happening, although nayeon doesn't talk about that- it only seemed like an evidence for them to get together.

jeongyeon would always carry her books around for her, she would land her her jacket to protect her from the rain when she came to watch quidditch matches, and when she had walked toward her with a bouquet of red and white roses, nayeon had known what words would leave past her lips before she was even close enough for her to hear her. everyone wanted them to get together, everyone lived their own nonexistant love lives through theirs and admired them every step of the way, but when nayeon told jeongyeon that she loved her, the words resonated empty inside of her heart.

when they broke up, it was on a mutual agreement to end things before anyone got seriously hurt. jeongyeon had cried, and nayeon still hasn't forgotten the tears that fell down her face when she confessed that she was falling for her far too deep and yet knew that this, that they, would never be more than friends in nayeon's heart. the slytherin had been sad for a short while, mostly due to the sad smiles that jeongyeon threw her way every time they happened to see each other, but it all passed too quickly to have much of an impact on her life.

the exact contrary of what is currently happening to her right now. and all of that does confirm her earlier realization, one that leads her to believe that someone like mina is not someone she'll ever find again. she's a once in a lifetime opportunity, the opportunity to be loved and love back like her heart has been begging to for years, always waiting for the right one.

and mina could very well be exactly who she's been waiting for.)

mina makes nayeon feel out of control, like she's not the only one having to take her life in her hands, like she can trust her to lead the way- all of this from one simple look. but when the slytherin used to think of this as dangerous, she's grown to accept that it might actually be life giving her one last chance, one last opportunity to simply live without regrets and pain to ruin anything.

"i didn't know that mina was such close friends with small gryffindor and co." sana's voice brings her back to the present and when she throws one last glance at mina she finds that the blonde is animatedly talking with her friends. 

"and what tells you i care about mina and her friends ?" nayeon feigns disinterest, ignoring sana's pointed look as she looks around the table, searching for something that would fit her taste. ever since that night, ever since sana told her about her true feelings, nayeon has made it a mission to never mention mina around her. it's her own way to protect her best friend's already fragile heart, to make sure sana doesn't end up falling down like everyone around nayeon always does. she knows that there's not much she can do, and that deep down, sana certainly still hopes, because she's always been the optimist one between the two of them, always been the one to hope for happiness.

whereas nayeon knows, she knows that she will surely never return her feelings, not when she's finally decided that she wouldn't keep herself from being by mina's side anymore.

instead of leaving it at that like she usually would have, sana laughs, wrapping an arm around nayeon's shoulders and bringing her into a hug from the side. nayeon rolls her eyes- she won't just suddenly become an undying fan of sana's constant need for physical contact- and lets her best friend hug her. but right before sana pulls away, she brings her mouth to her ear.

"are you really trying to hide your little crush from me, nayeon. i thought we were past that." 

her smile is playful as she gently pushes nayeon back to her seat, and proceeds to ignore her wide surprised eyes as she enters a conversation with a fellow slytherin she's probably only pretending to care about to escape her best friend's questions.

and as mina stares at them, she becomes a bit more sure that something definitely changed between sana and nayeon.

  
\-----

  
"how long have you known ?" nayeon says as soon as she enters sana's room, glaring at her roommate who hurries out of the room, closing the door behind herself. she might have been scared off by nayeon on enough occasions to know that no, needing to study for an exam in her room is not a good enough reason to stay- there might have had been a few curses and the use of a spell to change her hair into snakes, but to nayeon's defense, they were cute snakes. 

"why does it matter, nayeon ? i just know, that's all. you haven't been very good at hiding it, and neither has she." sana looks up from her freshy painted nails to smirk at her best friend, nayeon making herself comfortable in the room as she takes a seat on her roommate's bed. 

"well, i just came here to tell you that you're wrong. i don't have a crush on mina or on anyone for the matter." and nayeon looks so offended by the idea, rolling her eyes just in case sana didn't quite get it, that she could almost believe it. "and i'm pretty sure that she doesn't either, although i would totally understand if she did, of course."

but sana certainly is in the best place to know who nayeon has feelings for.

she's been waiting for years for nayeon to look at her like she does mina, even expected her to look at jeongyeon like this, but when she didn't is when she understood that her friend was simply stuck in a relationship of convenience. and sana would know better than anyone that mina feels the same, because they both have the exact same sparkle in their eyes when they stare at nayeon, the same desire to be hers, to be loved by her. something tells her that mina fell just as deep as she did, and that she might not end up as heartbroken as she herself was.

it hurts, and she knows that the pain will certainly only increase before it disappears. but sana wants nayeon to be happy, even if that means seeing her with someone else. she will get her own chance at love someday, and nayeon will still be there, as her best friend, every step of the way.

"come on, nayeon, there's no use in lying to me here. i've literally seen you blush when she smiled at you ! when was the last time someone made you blush ? yeah, exactly, it's never happened before. i would know, you always told me about all of the dumb crushes you would get in fourth year and yet you never acted like you do now." sana reaches for her lipstick now that her nails are finally dry, and her mirror levitates to her side of the room. she looks up to find that nayeon is playing with her own wand, rolling it around her fingers, as she takes a deep breath- certainly very close to giving into finally admitting her crush to sana.

"you might be a little bit right i guess." nayeon ends up admitting with a sigh, leaning back until she's laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling absentmindedly.

"look, nayeon. i don't know what exactly is keeping you from trying to fix things between the two of you, but nothing will happen if you don't at least try. mina... well in all honesty, she definitely doesn't seem like the type to make the first move, and she'll probably want to respect your boundaries so much that she'll stay watching you from afar until you let her know about what you feel." her lipstick lays forgotten in her hand. had someone told her that she would be giving nayeon advice to bring her into the arms of another awhile ago, she would have never believed herself to be able to do it. but she and nayeon promised to each other that her confession wouldn't change anything between them, and she intends on respecting that one rule.

"i can't just come up to her and tell her that i have feelings for her, that's too much. what if she turns me down ?" 

sana chuckles at her friend's worried tone, shaking her head lightly. she's so oblivious to how mina feels that she knows that mina will have to be the one to change her mind about this. all she can do now is try to get her to understand that shy glances and secret smiles won't do much. 

the slytherin is not exactly sure that mina is entirely human, nor is she sure that the evidence she found and that led her to believe that she was more than right would lead her to anything good. but lately, less and less people have seemed to fall for her, at least not as deeply as they used to, and nayeon has never quite acted like those students did. she was able to push mina away, all of this for weeks, and yet it didn't put her in the same dangerous state. 

although she does not entirely forget that mina might have something to tell to everyone here, but especially to nayeon, she believes that this is not something for her to do. even though she does intend on keeping that book she found about white-blonde haired creatures for a bit longer. just in case.

"i have a feeling that she won't." nayeon doesn't look at her, eyes still focused on the glowing stars that her roommate has magically glued to the ceiling as a decoration. but if she did, she would find sad eyes staring back at her, as flashes of nayeon and mina together, as one, invade her mind. "don't push her away. if she ever tries to know if you would be willing to be with her, please don't push her away." 

_not like you did with me_ stays unsaid, but nayeon hears it nonetheless. 

"i won't."

  
\-----

nayeon thinks she might be hallucinating when she hears her name being called out, the voice one that she recognizes in an instant. the last time she's heard it directed at her was in a dream, certainly the first one she's had since she was a child, one that replaced her usual nightmares. 

slowly, as if going faster might scare her away, nayeon looks up from the still water of the lake to find that mina is right next to her. she had heard footsteps coming her way, but was too busy appreciating the sight of sunlight kissing the water in a game of reflections to think of looking at the person who she believed to have been taking a short evening walk.

"hi." mina greets her shyly, hands in her pockets as she holds her stare with some difficulty. the last time she was this close to nayeon had not ended well, but she chooses to push those memories to the back of her mind, instead wanting to focus on the instant, and more particularly on the sparkle that the sun makes in nayeon's eyes.

"hi. it's been awhile." nayeon mentally scolds herself for saying something so basic, especially when she is the reason that she and mina haven't gotten to talk for so long. but mina does not seem to think about it that way judging from the smile of reassurance that spreads on her pink lips.

"yeah, it has." mina sighs, as if reminded of old memories, ones that took place not far from here. the scenery had been very different then, the cold of winter hitting her skin harshly when the wind became too strong, whereas now, the warmth of a shy sun is all she can feel. that, and the pounding of her heart inside of her chest. "i missed you."

her words are tentative, scared of what nayeon's reaction might be. but against anything she might have thought of when she imagined how this would go, nayeon does something entirely unexpected and reaches for her hand, holding it tightly in hers as she turns back to face the water. a pink blush spreads up to her ears, and mina believes this might be the cutest reaction she's gotten to see from nayeon.

"i guessed that means you missed me too." she whispers, thinking that nayeon will probably miss it. but instead, the slytherin whines, a pout gracing her lips when she faces mina again, this time to bring her in a hug. she tried, really she did, to resist the sudden pull to be close to mina again, to feel her warm body in her arms, but playing hard to get did not last more than a few seconds before the need to hug her simply became too much. (although she will not hesitate on hurting mina if she ever mentions her whining to anyone.) 

the veela laughs, tears of joy shining in her eyes, and holds nayeon tightly against herself. a delicate wind comes to caress their skin, and chills run down nayeon's arms until the veela takes her hands in hers, trying to warm them up a bit. 

and that's all it takes for them to know that they won't ever leave one another's side. not now, not ever again.

  
\-----

  
it's a day that begins like any other for nayeon. 

she wakes up, alone, and misses the warmth that mina used to give to her at all times, happy as she remembers that she should be seeing her a lot more from now on. when she looks at herself in the mirror, she's glad to see that the more time passes, the calmer she seems to look. her mind seems a lot more at peace, and she remembers to pass by jihyo's office sometimes today- to thank her, and because grown up or not, she does miss her a lot. 

as the head girl, she usually wakes up before everyone else. it isn't a requirement, but she takes her role very seriously, and has always loved walking down the hallways when everyone is still half asleep, waiting for breakfast to start. not only is it a good way to catch anyone who might have decided to cause trouble- she's discovered long ago that nighttime is not the only moment they're the most active- but it also helps her clear her head immensely.

sometimes, when she's sure that everything should go well, she even takes a short walk in the gardens, admiring jihyo's work with the now blooming flowers and fast growing plants. the headmistress has always been particularly fond of nature, and according to the short history of hogwarts classes they took that mentionned her stay here, everything around here used to look far darker and bland before she took over. it sometimes reminds nayeon of their wide garden back home, and of the time she used to spend playing around the roses. jihyo would away find her with small scratches all over her arms when she succeeded in catching up with her running, and although she would scold her for getting hurt, nayeon always loved that she took time to put a small bandage on each of the marks.

it reminds her that her home always was by jihyo's side, and that nothing could change this. the good memories she made there, all thanks to the overly kind woman, will be forever.

but today, nayeon has to give up on her short trip to the gardens. as soon as she steps out of her room, dark green tie tightly secured around her neck, she finds that a crowd of students is already waiting right behind her door, although they're all facing away from her. it's rare for anyone to hang out in that part of the castle considering it is only made of the dorms and common rooms, and yet the slytherin has a hard time taking even a short step with the amount of students, from all ages although most seem to be in their seventh year, agglutinated around what seems to be the centre of their interest.

she doesn't know what they're staring at, but the looks some of them shoot at the door that's not too far from her own room are far from reassuring her. worry pushes her to act, and she pushes anyone that stands in front of her, considering them as obstacles more than fellow students.

"move out of the way." her venom laced tone does work in getting them to follow her order, and the mass of students part like the red sea as she walks closer and closer to the end of the wide half circle of bodies. some stare at her with worried eyes, others with amused ones, and she wonders what could explain such mixed reactions from them. everyone usually is scared of her, and she's rarely seen anyone think they both were on the same page, even less laughing along with her.

the last student isn't facing the wall but is instead looking straight at nayeon. he raises an eyebrow when he sees her, and she finds in the worry that spreads on his face that he might have been expecting someone else entirely.

"what have you done this time, simon." the dark green color of his robes catches her eyes, and she remembers him as the boy who got rejected by mina quite harshly- he had insisted on taking her on a date, and mina had needed to push him away to get him to let go of her wrist. if it weren't for her main preoccupation right now, nayeon would have certainly loved to duel him right then and there, as she had unfortunately been absent when he had been a bit too pushy with the blonde girl.

"calm down, im. i've only done what i ought to for everyone here to know who exactly they might facing." his chuckle is dark, and he smirks as he steps out of her way, revealing what nayeon has been trying to reach all this time.

it takes her no more than three seconds to read the words written on a small parchment paper, right under a picture of mina, one that has certainly been taken without her knowing. the black ink reads 'be careful of the beast', and nayeon's grip on her wand tightens as her eyes fall on another picture, this one of a woman with white blonde hair, large threatening black wings having grown from her back, her teeth sharp and a destructive fire burning in her hands.

long seconds passes as she takes in the pictures and what they mean. silence replaces the earlier murmurs, as if time suddenly stopped, everyone waiting for her reaction. 

but when she turns around, the disgust they expected to find in her eyes is instead a burning rage. she looks right into his eyes, and he seems to understand the immediate danger considering he slowly walks backwards, students once again parting to let him pass- if it is because they feel bad for him, or because they're scared of the damage that nayeon might do to them when she'll finally unleash her rage, no one is really sure.

"w-why aren't you disgusted ?" he asks, stuttering as panick begins to overtake his earlier proud expression. "she probably cursed you too ! don't you see you're just as much her victim as i am ? open your eyes, im. before she destroys you and throws you away like she did with all of us." 

nayeon swallows hard, and slowly brings her hand up, pointing her wand right at his heart. thinking in that moment appears to be far too complicated, and she does not yet know what spell will leave the tip of her wand, but if she knows one thing, it is the she does not care about the consequences that her actions will later have, not when he has clearly been trying to hurt mina. 

and right before she can fire a spell at the slytherin- who has not even tried to reach for his own wand, aware of the waste that it would be to fight back against the school's most skilled duelist- the click of a door opening stops her. she can feel eyes burning on her face, and when she's sure that he will not try to run away, she looks away from his sweating face to see that mina has just opened the door to her room.

the crowd of students have parted, and when she sees that mina is looking over her shoulder instead of directly at her, nayeon understands exactly what that means. mina's eyes move fast as they go over the five words, until tears swell in her eyes. it feels like she can't look away, frozen and forced to watch as she gets exposed to what will later on be the entire school. this is a moment she's seen in her nightmares, especially when she realizes that everyone is staring at her with scared eyes, as if fearing that she would suddenly turn into the beast that resides in her blood, that she would start throwing balls of a burning fire at them until everything around her burned into ashes. 

but fire never comes from her, instead a red light comes from the dragon heartstrings wand that has now become famous from the girl who bears it. nayeon turns back around and fires a simple but effective spell, the parchment surrounded by flames that attacks it until it disappears into the air. the flames die down as soon as it's gone, and that's when everyone can appreciate the precision of her spells, the wall that had been bearing the paper intact, not one burn having stained it.

everything happens so fast after this that mina is not sure she could replay the events in her head. all that she remembers is nayeon's confident step echoing inside of her head as the slytherin seems to throw one last spell, a flash of blue illuminating the corridor, the scared cries of a boy punctuating each of her steps. 

until the mess of noises that surround her disappear, a hand wrapping in hers and bringing her back inside of her room, away from anyone who might think of hurting her.

she remembers the silence that had then taken over the room being replaced by sobs, remembers that those tears had been coming from her own eyes, and the panick that invaded her mind when she realized that nayeon surely came here to tell her that she never wanted to see her again.

but later on, when she'll have grown calmer, mina will also remember the hold of the girl she loves not having left her for so much as a second, soothing her silent worries with loving confessions that her still panicked mind had trouble understanding. 

she will remember that nayeon spent long hours drying her tears with gentle caresses, and the short kiss that she left on her tingling cheeks when her sobs finally died down, the ache in her heart still very much there although nayeon did intend on making it disappear as well.

but for now, mina would rather let herself enjoy the small bit of peace she's gotten in a long time, nayeon's face tucked in her neck as her breath gently hits the tingling skin of her collarbone, the girl having fallen asleep while she was comforting her with a hand gently resting on the skin of her waist, under her shirt.

on that short morning, it feels like the last, missing piece of each of their hearts finally comes to complete the puzzle. and although their story is far from being over, mina still having quite a bit of explaining to do, they both choose to believe in happy endings.

  


**Author's Note:**

> nakookys on tumblr and miIfyeon on twitter!
> 
> (title and most chapter titles will surely be from 5sos songs cause that's what i listened to while writing this ^^)


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